Société Géniale

So Société Générale (a bank that my friend Js works for, and my friend Jf's dad worked for) has this ad campaign that is weird and grody... yet effective, in much the same way that a wet willy is effective.

So the idea is: to illustrate that Soc Gen will give you a "coup de pouce" -- like giving someone a hand, except it's giving someone a thumb ("pouce") -- the ads feature this freaky anthropomorphized thumb. It's bad enough in print...



...but it's the stuff of nightmares on TV.

Actually, though, as I was searching for the TV commercials online, I found this parody, which is totally NSFW (Mom, that's "not safe for work," which means that it involves genitalia, so view at your own risk!). You might even learn a new word in French.

And, because you just might need a chaser after that, here is a much older Soc Gen video (an ad? part of a made-for-TV movie?), complete with dancing security guards. Not very good dancing security guards, but they get points for effort. And for facial hair.