CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

Positively Confused!

Positively Confused!
What happened to Cape Cod Cooperative Bank?

Where's the Lobstah, and where's the Clambake in their Westchester County ad with a giant Italian Sub?

Who are you and what have you done with that bank?

Today I saw another ad for this new-fangled The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod and I'm confused!

What was wrong with Cape Cod Cooperative Bank?

When I tried to avert my eyes I turned on the radio, and there was the lilting ad about the Cooperative bank of Cape Cod. A bank on Cape Cod or a Cape Cod Bank... What?

I mean really why would they change the bank's name? What was wrong with the old one? Do they think that people believe they're more "cooperative" now and will lend money to an alley cat? Are they so much more "cooperative" that they'll open a checking account for a serial bouncer of checks?

The Invasion of the Pod People?

Don't get me wrong. I respect Cape Cod Cooperative Bank and admire its president Joel Crowell. But I'm worried! Did the Pod People replace those nice folks over in Yarmouth Port? Oh wait, they moved to Hyannis didn't they? I can't remember.

I'm positively confused!

Okay I do get the logo change. The sea shells looked way too West-Yarmouth-in-1975, right back there with the dancing turkey in front of Fred's Turkey House. Yeah, I get that one, even if I don't get why they had to change the name. And the way the executed it... with those banners tied to the old signs? I couldn't tell if it was a new brand of condom or an S&M play date gone terribly wrong with all those ropes and knots.

Then I saw this print ad of theirs. It shows a family sitting around enjoying something that looks like a picnic - in Westchester County, at least.

Did you see that ad? That doesn't look like any Cape Cod picnic I've ever attended. The table looks like it was catered in New York or maybe New Canaan. Fancy dishes, immaculate kids and nice jewelry on the ladies. The smiling young father right out of an Enzyte commercial... Does that look like Cape Cod or is it more like some stock photo a Mad Man pulled out of his tuchas?

And what are they eating? Fancy sandwiches, elaborate veggie dishes and cupcakes. That's right, cupcakes! Quick, someone call the Nauset schools' cupcake police!

Where's the lobster? Where's the clambake?

Seriously, where's the lobster? Where's the clambake? They're not even on the beach! Not a sea gull in sight!

Most importantly where are the ticks? You can't have a picnic on Cape Cod without ticks!

And what about that web address? What was it again?

www.thecooperativebankofcapecod.com ?

Oh thank heaven they got that out of their system early. www.mycapecodbank.com is so much easier.

I ask myself, why would anyone think of a web address www.thecooperativebankofcapecod.com and expect people to type www.thecooperativebankofcapecod.com instead of www.mycapecodbank.com ?

Is this perhaps a new test for dementia? Cue the announcer: "If you don't have the short term memory to enter www.thecooperativebankofcapecod.com please see your doctor today."

I'm a stingy old Yankee. When I was a kid the local library had bookmarks sponsored by a local bank. It featured the cut-out head of a Scotsman and had the bank's slogan, "It's smart to be thrifty!" What's thrifty about all the money the bank must've spent on all this re-branding? Don't they think they could get their message out without changing their entire name, without hiring what's likely some off-Cape ad agency to give us idyllic pictures of a New York picnic? That doesn't sound thrifty (or smart) to my aging ears.

I'm positively confused! Who are these people and what have they done with that bank?