SoFi to Air Super Bowl Commercial (Watch it here!)

“great loans for great people,” the narrator says after zooming in on several young urban professionals. Humorously, the TV commercial, which will air during the Super Bowl, labels some people as “not great” and therefore ineligible to join a rather exclusive club of people who can get great loans. Watch the video below:

NOTE: SoFi has modified their ad to be less controversial by removing the last spoken line from it. The “you’re probably not [great]” ending apparently received some PR backlash. The updated ad is below:

Credit card companies use a similar technique of appealing to consumers by bestowing them with some kind of status. With labels such as Diamond Preferred, Platinum, Platinum Advantage, Platinum Prestige, Gold, Premium and World Elite, it’s an attempt to make the borrower feel like they are part of an important club.

SoFi however, may be the first to showcase borrowers who are just not good enough to be in their club, with the obvious intent that the commercial will be something to talk about. People are probably more likely to share something that is controversial than something that is plain vanilla. With 30 second slots going for $4.5 million this year, SoFi probably can’t afford to go unnoticed.

As part of a promotional campaign, SoFi has been selling their vision of a bankless world through a dystopian online video:

SoFi CEO Mike Cagney has consistently cast himself as the anti-banker, and once joked that his whereabouts are monitored by friends at all times to limit the opportunities for bankers to kidnap him.

What do you think about the SoFi commercial. Is it great?

Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future AltFinanceDaily events here.