Where’s the bank advert?

OK, so I said banks should stop advertising and they did.

Not a single bank ad at this year's SuperBowl extravaganza.

With 100 million viewers, the SuperBowl spots are the most expensive ever, raking in $206m (£141m) in advertising for NBC.  That's about $3 million per 30-second slot, or $100,000 per second.  A lot more than the $42,000 for a whole advert back in 1967.

The main advertisers were folks like Doritos, Coke and Budweiser.  A few car firms like Audi, Hyundai and Toyota.  But not a single bank advert.

Having said that, there were three finance ads I spotted.

First, as usual, there's e*trade with the talking babies they've used for a while now:

Then there's the worrying IRS tax return season, with H&R Block scaring the bejeez out of everyone:

And, in a sign of the times, Cash4Gold.com appears for the first time:

Cash4Gold is almost like having a pawn shop advertising on the SuperBowl, except they buy your gold off you rather than keeping it in hock.  Who would have thought it?

Going back to the banks mind you, where were the bank ads in previous years?

There weren't many, although Chase were the exception last year:

All  in all, with the current state of banking, I guess splashing out $3 million on 30 seconds is not seen as a good thing or a good deal.