Cowen on ... Lloyds TSB. (Opinion).

I'm not sure if Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R is aiming to depose Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO as adland's celebrity endorsement specialist, but intentionally or not it's having a damn good run at it.

To begin with there was Fay Ripley floating around in a bathtub for The Times -- bizarre, unengaging and of dubious relevance to the product. Then there was Marks & Spencer's Christmas extravaganza -- syrupy, sentimental and, as it turns out, fantastically effective. Now there's John Thompson and Joely Richardson, who act most other star performers off the screen in the new ad for Lloyds TSB.

There's a difference between signing up celebrities to endorse a product and casting the right, well-known actors to fill a role. It's clear from the names rumoured to be on the agency's wish-list for these ads (Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Kathy Burke) that it was interested in the latter option -- and it pays off. There's a genuine shy chemistry between this pair, Richardson is beautiful in a not too glitzy way and Thompson delivers the ad's single, cringeworthy gag in a way that's actually quite funny.

It's just as well that the performances are so assured -- because this ad would be almost unbearably bland otherwise. It's firmly in the schmaltzy Lloyds advertising tradition with a ridiculously sunny and optimistic view of small business, local communities and true love that's normally only seen in Richard Curtis movies.

The strategy is simple -- feature a single service in each ad, surround it with likeable characters and then say as little as possible about it. "They show me how to get more customers." How, exactly? Stick a load of flowers in the window and sigh longingly at women? All the technical detail gets shoved in at the end with the horse, when the audience has safely tuned out. I've watched this ad four times in a row and I couldn't tell you a thing about Lloyds' business banking other than it helps you meet Joely ...