That is the headline in a very recent issue of the Times of London.

And there's more!

Meanwhile spend some time watching prime time TV and you'll discover that the same British banks are squandering millions nightly, on TV advertising, telling all and sundry just how decent, honest and trustworthy they are and how they can be relied to look after your money! Meanwhile they are busily robbing your very bank accounts that they hold!

An interesting statistic has emerged recently, over four million people have downloaded the templates enabling them to reclaim the many millions illegally ripped off them through unlawful plundering and removal of monies from their bank accounts. And just for arguments sake this 4 million people have each told 5 other people of this experience, so that is 20 million people convinced of the dishonesty of the banking system!

Not all the advertising in the world can help the banks regain the trust and good will that has evaporated from this little fiasco! I guarantee that no advertising agency will recommend that the Banks should pull their advertising off TV until this little fiasco dies away.

And then there's the net...ah, the Internet, utterly hostile and uncaring about the needs of corporate advertisers but nevertheless ripping off clients who are clamouring to advertise there!

It has been established that advertisements for major brands including eBay and easyCar were appearing on sites hosting violent content. Without prior knowledge of the advertisers! A slick piece of advertising jargon known as "Blind buy".

Other household names, such as Pepsi, Starbucks and Sony Playstation are benefiting from advertisements next to Internet footage of children as young as ten beating each other up in organised fights!

There even was an advertisement inviting viewers to "Win £1,000 with your video clips and show us how much you love Pepsi".

Another advertisement reads "Buy street fight videos on eBay"!

Companies place some of the advertisements that appear next to fight footage direct, Websites contacted said that while they regularly screened content and remove offensive material they could not exercise complete control over what was posted!

I have said it before and I'll say it again, the Web 2.0 is not a suitable medium for advertising, it was not developed to be a mass marketing medium, it was built for people to go elsewhere...mainly for pornography, 65% log on in the search for pornography!

What is really frustrating is the fact that all these problems need not exist if the advertising industry really understood the meaning of the word "communication".

Armed with that understanding they could (and they really don't want to do this) substantially reduce their Clients budgets, reduce clutter, be totally accountable, increase sales, give people a need to watch terrestrial TV thus halting the erosion of audiences and protect our excellent media culture!

It is when you fully realise what advertising agencies are all about that you realise that they do not have our best interests at heart! In America advertising is known as a "Brand Tax"...in a nutshell, it is, it certainly isn't free!

In closing let me report on a recent consumer poll and consumer attitudes to high street banks. This survey shows that the public can barely tell them apart. It would appear that account holders stick with their bank not out of loyalty, but ennui! People are not simply inspired by the marketing, the branding or the promise of anyone else on the high street.

This is an amazing achievement, given how much banks and building societies spend on advertising, public relations and consumer promotions!

All I can say is "What an utter waste of money...our money"!