Ira Goldstein is a fictional character played by Steve Mellor, who appears in

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

and

radio commercial In the United States, commercial radio stations make most of their revenue by selling airtime to be used for running radio advertisements. These advertisements are the result of a business or a service providing a valuable consideration, usually ...

s for

ASB Bank ASB Bank Limited, commonly stylised as ASB, is a bank owned by Commonwealth Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, operating in New Zealand. It provides a range of financial services including retail, business and rural banking, funds managem ...

in New Zealand. The commercials were screened from January 2000 to October 2010 and were produced by

TBWA TBWA Worldwide is an international advertising agency whose main headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. Since 1993, the agency has been a unit of Omnicom Group, the world's second largest advertising agency holdin ...

/ Whybin agency. In the commercials, Goldstein works as an employee for a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

bank and is sent to New Zealand by his boss R. J. Lincoln (played by Australian actor Bruce Venables) to "find out what makes that bank different". The first commercial in the series features Goldstein explaining to his boss that people perceive all banks to be the same, with one exception – the ASB Bank. Initially, Goldstein's boss believes his bank is the one exception until he finds out it is located in New Zealand, to his bewilderment. His boss appears in most advertisements, usually by telephone from his New York office. However he does make visits to New Zealand to meet Goldstein, and to check up on him.

Personal life

Goldstein is a high-flyer, single and lives in a palatial

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

home. However Goldstein's own car is an unlikely element of surprise. Rather than an expensive late-model one, he was shown over

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–

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

chauffeuring his boss around Auckland in a metallic-brown 1979 Princess 2000 HL. Since moving to New Zealand to investigate ASB, Goldstein has started his own business and purchased property (presumably thanks to the helpful bank), but must always keep his activities under wraps when his boss is around. Goldstein also has difficulty at one particular branch due to his attraction to a female worker at the bank.

Awards

The Goldstein series has won several awards from the Communications Association Agency New Zealand (CAANZ). The first award came in 2001, with th
'Herd' of Chickens
commercial receiving the Highly Commended award. Th
Sustained Success Bronze award
and th
Consumer Services Gold award
were received in 2002. In 200
the campaign
received the CAANZ People's Choice Award and th
Sustained Success bronze award
2004 saw the bronze award for th
Switching – Easy
radio commercial and another People's Choice Award fo
the campaign

Campaign end

On 26 June 2010, it was announced that due to ASB Bank dropping advertising agency

/ Whybin, the Goldstein campaign would end. In Ira's final commercial, which first screened on 27 September 2010, Ira is called back home to New York at the end of his New Zealand assignment, however, he cannot resist calling his ASB personal banker who reminds him of his (by now) huge

bagel A bagel ( yi, בײגל, translit=beygl; pl, bajgiel; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. It is traditionally shaped by hand into a roughly hand-sized ring from yeasted wheat dough that is first ...

business. Goldstein immediately returns to New Zealand to re-assume management of his bagel empire and once again take possession of his palatial

home. Soon, however, his former boss arrives on his doorstep, destitute after being fired (possibly due to

economic recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

, although this is not clarified). Ira tells him to go to New York and find out what makes their bagels different, thereby turning the first commercial in the series on its head (Ira was originally ordered by his boss to go to ''New Zealand'' to find out what made ''ASB Bank'' different). At its conclusion, the Goldstein campaign had produced approximately sixty commercials and had run for eleven years.

Controversy

New Zealand's Jewish community, which perceived Goldstein as an unfortunate stereotype, expressed initial resistance to the advertising character. The popularity and success of the character has, however, largely mollified any initial concerns. ASB Bank pulled the Ira Goldstein commercials from air for several weeks following the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

attacks of September 2001, out of respect and for fear of causing offence with their image of a bumbling New York banker. One commercial that showed Goldstein comparing Rotorua's boiling mud pools to the opening of the World Trade Center was altered in the wake of "9/11". The line of dialogue in question changed so that Goldstein merely commented on the presence of the mud.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldstein, Ira Advertising characters Male characters in advertising Fictional Jews Fictional characters from New York City Fictional New Zealand people