American US Consumer

Adverts for Nationwide featuring actor Dominic West have been banned for misleading consumers into thinking that the bank unlike its rivals would not be closing its branches. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated the TV, radio and press ads, in which West plays the boss of a fictional rival of Nationwide, following 282 complaints. One of those was from Santander, who understood that Nationwide had recently closed or reduced opening hours at a number of branches, and challenged whether the ads were misleading. In the television ad, West, who recently played Prince Charles in The Crown, jokes about a large expenses bill for a company lunch before going on to talk about cutbacks and closing the branch.