PNC Bank Lampoons Finance Bros and Time Travel

It's all about making the right money moves

Not sure if your mom’s turned into a finance bro? PNC Bank can help.

If she tracks stocks on multiple monitors at the dinner table, saying stuff like “the gains are pumping” and “futures don’t sleep in the after hours,” then she’s clearly entered bro country.

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Developed with Arnold Worldwide, the work promises viewers they don’t have to go to ridiculous lengths to manage their finances. Naturally, PNC’s casts itself as an ally, recommending less aggressive (and absurd) options. Ads reinforce the bank’s “Brilliantly Boring” positioning.

Mom and Dad in “Finance Bro” appeared with improv troupe The Groundlings. On set, that background yielded “an ever-flowing fountain of ideas and performances,” Arnold ECD James Bray tells Muse.

It’s basically a lifestyle pitch that—in tone if not particulars—resembles amusing efforts from NerdWallet and others in the space.

Next, a time-travel tale, complete with a knight who’s seen better days:

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“Sir Ronald is a character our hero picked up during his time travels,” Bray explains. The temporal tinkerer “Is still working out the kinks, which is why he found himself in the 16th Century instead of where he actually needed to be.”

In the here and now: “We’re not here to shame audiences for experiencing financial FOMO. Or the questionable money moves that ensue,” says Bray. “We’re here to extend a light-hearted hand to show them there’s a far less risky way to manage their money.”

Anonymous content director Tim Godsall—adept at quirky comedy—stages the scenarios in classic SNL sketch style. Thankfully, the commercials are funnier than most of those.

The campaign breaks this week, with TV, CTV, digital video, social and audio all in the mix.