Sign me up for a loan!

Just as a matter of convenience, I do a fair amount of riding on the Cynwyd Heritage Trail. I'm not sure why a former commuter train route now has heritage, but it's not a matter of any urgency to me. I ride it because it's close to my house, a round trip adds 4 miles to any subsequent ride, and the 2 mile steady 2-3% climb is good training. But it isn't exactly fun or visually arresting.

My favorite sight along the trail is a billboard ad for a bank that is meant not for the trail, but for the Expressway down below. It shows someone in a suit getting fired out of a cannon with a headline that reads There must be a better way to get a business loan. Now it's possible that this kind of thing has changed since I was in the business world, but in my time at Wharton and 20 years in business, I don't remember anything about cannons. Do people really do this?

On one hand, I find myself thinking, how did someone (1) come up with this idea and (2) convince someone else that it was a good enough idea to spend money for producing and displaying a billboard? I can sort of see where it would start. The client would say, we want people to know that they won't have to jump through all kinds of hoops to get a business loan from our bank. And the add guy might think, "Hmm, jump through hoops, like a trained animal at a circus. What else happens at a circus?"

So it's not completely off message, if the idea is to say, you don't have to do something borderline insane to get a loan from us. On the other hand, wouldn't it be more fun if you did? I mean, it would bring in a different kind of clientele. But getting shot out of a cannon sounds like way more fun that analyzing financial statements and determining credit-worthiness.