ABSTRACT
In the post-war period, British banks changed from quasi-public to market-driven institutions (Burton, 1994). This transformation brought changing attitudes towards consumers which influenced both the quantity and quality of the banks’ advertising. The banks arrived late to the promotional task in comparison to many other sectors, learning promotional tricks in the 1960s which retailing and foodstuff sectors had known since the 1930s; yet by the 1980s financial products were one of the best promoted goods on the British market. In their early years the banks had little incentive to market their goods the way other sectors had long been required to, for government regulation largely sheltered them from competition until the 1970s, and the banks derived most of their profits outside of the personal finance arena. They were secured from domestic industry, as the banks helped orchestrate the post-war development boom, and through international money management, particularly the handling of ‘Euro dollars’, the funds which America pumped into European economies to help their rebuilding efforts after the war. Profit also came from cycling OPEC oil funds into Third World economies.
