Oh Hai, I Can Haz Catipal? KThxBai.

AIB spent a large sum of money yesterday reassuring us that they were primed and ready to back their customers with renewed vigour. As they might, having had €3.5bn of our money pumped into their cobwebbed coffers to help lubricate the credit system. The ads contain the line: ‘As Ireland’s largest bank we can – and must – play a role in getting our economy back onto its feet.’

Full-page ads across a large section of national newspapers cost, on Mark Coughlan’s estimates, €160,585 – a substantial amount on any given day, and certainly enough to raise eyebrows when it’s felt that banks have been more flaithuileach than they should with other peoples’ money. Many could rightly feel that the money would have been better spent invested in SMEs or loosening lending policy.

The figure, in perspective, represents 0.005% of what the government invested in AIB, or 1/20,000th of the principal (Meaning they still have 99.995% of it to play with, or €3,499,839,415). Given the size of the principal, hewing off even that small a fraction yields a breathtaking lump. Of course, €28,615 of that lump goes directly back into government coffers as VAT paid on the ads by AIB to the various papers, so all is not lost. The balance will also trickle back into the Irish economy (bar, perhaps, the money spent with the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times) as the newspapers go about spending their revenue on other goods and services, wages, PAYE/PRSI and, if any of them manage to post a profit, corporation tax.

Mark offers a few suggestions on the alternative uses of the money. He says: ‘It would have funded 12 SMEs with the maximum FÁS staff training scholarship (€13,000)’, and goes on to point out it would pay for three school teachers or two Gardai. All good suggestions, but by calling it a ‘€160,585 thank you’, the post is missing the point slightly. (A disclosure before I go on – my initial reaction was exactly the same as Mark’s, and we discussed it on Twitter).

The full-page ads are just that – ads – and must be seen as such. Marketing mogul David Ogilvy once said: ‘The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time’. Personally, I’ve never invested more in hitting potential customers with advertising than in the last few months, which have been the toughest Ireland has ever seen. The purpose of ads is to inspire confidence and convince customers that they can rely on your product. People have lost their belief in the banking system which is, correspondingly, the source of all credit, and a prop to all industry. If SMEs, sole traders and the rest feel they have no chance of securing a loan or even useful advice by going into the bank, what options do they have? Going to the wall, and then the dole, is one, and that has a much more detrimental effect on the exchequer than a few newspaper ads.

AIB and BOI have a huge role to play in the next few financial months. Their trump card is the €7bn recapitalisation that they have just received, giving them a huge leg-up in security terms over and above other banks. In order to make those work, they need to be able to disburse that money into the Irish economy, and to do so, get people through the doors. To do so, they have to shout from the rooftops that they are safe, secure, and willing to lend . A 0.005% ad spend will pay for itself by the end of the month. As a proxy contributor to AIB’s bailout, I wish them well.