AIB to seek 2,500 lay offs but keep student workers.
April 8, 2012 by niallsmyth
Allied Irish Bank having received €20.8 billion of state money is to seek 2,500 redundancies (Irish Times 8 March 2012).
However, the bank persists in recruiting seconday school students to act as unpaid promoters and marketing agents as part of its ”Build a Bank Challenge 2011-2012.
Remarkable for the overt way it demands students promote AIB to their peers, “Build a Bank” encourages the use of special offers, incentives and public appeals for new bank accounts. The advertisements extend school-wide as teams, selected by AIB themselves, vie to generate most new accounts and create the best marketing scheme. The promotion is administered for AIB by Real Event Solutions, a marketing company specialising in in-school promotions and with experience of bringing corporate messages into schools.
A cursory look through some of the online sites used by various school shows just how much free publicity and uncritical promotion AIB receives through the “Build a Bank Challenge” : -
The Patrician Academy School in Co. Cork held many creative and innovative promotional days such as their ‘Bring a Buddy Day’ and ‘Charity Cupcake Day’ as well as bringing sports stars such as Paudie Kissane and Colm Cooper to the school to help advertise the bank. On each of their promotional days they offer their customers different gifts and goodies that were sponsored by a wide variety of local businesses. They also made available a college information card to their leaving cert students that advised them on how to change over to a third level bank account
John the Baptist Community School in Hospital, Co. Limerick invited in a Limerick Senior Hurler to help them cultivate new accounts for the sponsor.
Coláiste Pobail Osrai, Co. Kilkenny feature of team of ”employees” including a Sales & Marketing Manager who offer advice on the range of services offered by AIB.
The CCFE restates its emphatic objections to this shamless commercialism as follows:
- 2nd level students should not be encouraging and pressurising their peers to open accounts in a commercial bank (especially one which has cost the Irish state €20 billion due to its reckless lending).
- The space and time surrendered to AIB in schools should be redirected for educational and non-commercial purposes.
- AIB are not entitled to promote their products and services to the lucrative “young consumer market” within schools; this is barefaced advertisement and contravenes schools’ educational mission.
- The financial management and business skills AIB claims students learn through this marketing exercise could be just as easily taught through business studies, accounting or business organisation classes. A genuine, non-commercial school bank or credit union would serve the same purpose without the commercial kick-back of promotion and sales which AIB demand.
Contact the CCFE now to add your support for the abolision of this promotion.
