Viral or non-ethical marketing?

A supposedly new bank has been doing some heavy promo throughout Brussels for a while. First with bill posters in the usual places and some advertising in the free press, now with an “office” on the Place de la Monnaie/Muntplein.

This outfit is basically selling itself as a non-ethical investment bank. Placing your money in such great causes as weapons trade, post-war/disaster reconstruction (Halliburton), Wal-Mart, etc. Appealing to those people who like to be different by giving society the finger, or those who just don’t care. I don’t know…

Hell, most banks do that anyway. They just don’t use it as a key selling point.

For what it’s worth, the design just looks too hip to be a bank to begin with. The only phone number is a Belgian mobile one, pretty strange for a Europe-wide organisation. And they’ve made sure their origins are difficult to trace.

It smells of viral marketing from a mile away. I don’t know who’s behind it or what they’re promoting, but there’s a lot of money being thrown at this one.

update 17/10 : It’s a stunt by Netwerk Vlaanderen to expose unethical investing by Belgian banks.