The Commonwealth Bank has axed a controversial new online ad showing its "CAN" mascots dobbing in a fake terrorist suspect to an official outside London's volleyball arena, despite launching it less than 24 hours ago.
The spot, which first appeared on CommBank's YouTube channel just last night, has been already been removed. A spokesperson told AdNews obtaining a copy of the video would not be possible.
The commercial showed the campaign's 'C', 'A' and 'N' characters lining up to enter a women's volleyball event and alerting the acting security guard of the 'T' character, who is carrying a suscicious backpack.
The hoax was a risky move for the banking behemoth as it played upon London's current strict backpack search laws for the Olympics. It formed part of CommBank's 'CAN' campaign created by M&C Saatchi, which made its debut earlier this year (May 2012).
The campaign has featured actress Toni Collette and more recently gold medal hopeful James Magnussen.
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