The Mystery of the Aerobridge Advertisements

Recently, I’ve been doing some flying and I started noticing something odd. Every time you board or exit an airplane – through the so called aerobridge – you will see only one type of advertisement.

Banking Advertisements

For some reason, every airport you will fly to they’re there. No big consumer advertisements like Coca-Cola, Exxon-Mobil or Fritolay. Only banks.

Flying to Hong Kong, London or Narita will give you HSBC. Flying to Geneva will give you Credit Suisse, Dublin will give you Bank of Ireland and Amsterdam will give you ING.

Now why would the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation – which doesn’t have any consumer services in Japan – be interested in advertising to consumers that never heard of HSBC?

Maybe the underlying reason can be found in this piece of corporate statement:

Graham Macnaughton, Country Manager Japan, HSBC Group, commented, “HSBC is proud and honoured to be the first corporate sponsor of airbridges at Narita International Airport, the gateway to one of the world’s most important economic and cultural centers. Next year marks the 140th anniversary since the establishment of HSBC operations in Japan, and we believe the airbridges are symbolic of our unique service offering customers both international reach and local knowledge.”

Ok, so it’s a symbolic thing. Still, isn’t there some secret group of people conspiring?