Sterling Bank Artwork That Caused A Twitter Meltdown

Sterling Bank on Saturday, July 21, 2018 via its Twitter handle tweeted an art work that was more of a diss than an a Public Relations stunt.

It all began on Friday, July 20, 2018, when Sterling Bank shared a clever graphic with the caption: “Shoot for the moon, become a star – it’s the least you deserve. Welcome to #SterlingBank.”

The graphic featured a customer inside a Sterling-branded rocket blasting off to space, while subtly trolling five major competitors on the ground by mocking their logos and brand identities:

Access Bank: Depicted as a boy surfing backward or experiencing “regression” on the Access chevron logo.

GTBank: Shown as a person looking out from a square, jail-like box (mimicking their orange square logo).

First Bank: Shown as a person riding a sluggish, slow-moving elephant.Union Bank: Shown as a person riding a stallion going nowhere in circles.

In less an hour and all through the weekend Twitter Nigeria was melting with reactions as some of the affected banks responded with asinine but veiled subs…

For Access Bank, what Sterling showed a person surfing on a board resembling the Access Bank logo but moving downward, implying regression.

Access Bank responded by trolling Sterling’s market size: “We will travel on an imaginary rocket too, if we were a one-customer Microfinance Bank; but with ten million customers and counting, we rather bring the galaxy to you! #YouAreWorthIt #TakeTomorrow #KnowYourElders”.

For First Bank of Nigeria, Sterling showed a person riding an elephant (First Bank’s mascot) that was too slow and sluggish to move.

First Bank responded by putting up a graphic of a rocket crashing straight into a trash can: “…and straight into the trash can. What an elder sees while sitting, a child cannot see even if he travels to the moon. #RespectYourElders.”

For Union Bank, Sterling showed a boy riding a stallion (Union Bank’s mascot) heading in no clear direction.

Union Bank took an elder-statesman approach: “Heading to the moon without a spacesuit… journey mercies.” They followed up with references to iconic rap feuds, hinting that Sterling was outmatched.

For Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), Sterling depicted a person trapped inside an orange cube-looking house, a clear nod to GTBank’s orange branding, implying the bank was like a prison or rigid.

In a dramatic twist, GTBank opted for absolute silence. This drove massive banter from consumers, who joked that GTBank was too busy computing monthly card maintenance charges to care about Twitter drama.

The banter, hashtagged “bank wars”, which completely dominated Nigerian social media for over 48 hours, however, came to an abrupt end when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reportedly stepped in, frowning upon the aggressive comparative advertising.

Sterling Bank later deleted the graphic and issued a formal apology: “Our apologies go out to all the banks—the likeness of whose logos & buildings featured in a post which we have since deleted…”