Women have hit out at NatWest on social media accusing them of 'mansplaining' money its new marketing campaign.
The "Mr Banker" marketing stunt appears in the latest edition of Stylist - a free weekly magazine targeted at women - in which they apologise for using "sexist imagery and language" over the years.
The first part of the advert appears on the main image of the magazine which is a bouquet of flowers made out of £20 notes with a card which reads: "I'm sorry! We seem to have been using sexist imagery and language for the last few decades.
"But we're changing! Honestly!"
The second is a 'letter' with the heading "A message to all women" in which they continue to apologise for ignoring their female customers.
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But it hasn't been met with much praise from commuters picking up their copy who have branded it an "insult" and a "PR disaster".
A reader tweeted: "There's no way any women made this/wrote this/looked at this before it went anywhere. What a lot of patronising b*****s."
Another said: "So the visuals of the apology is a bunch of ‘I'm sorry’ flowers with this months allowance in them? break the stereotype by reinforcing it? But without realising? A whole new level of mansplaining inception."
"Seriously @NatWest_Help apologising for your sexist imagery and language with a bunch of flowers.....the irony ...." added a third.
"Wow @NatWest_Help - this @StylistMagazine cover wrap might just be the most patronising thing I've read. What percentage of men don’t find banking easy to understand? Shouldn’t you be making your products easy to understand for ALL genders, not just women? The sentiment is all wrong," said another.
The marketing is part of a new initiative in conjunction with Stylist - the Woman's Worth Collective - a campaign to change how banks engage with women about money and finances.
The seven-month long partnership will include a proactive live stunt as well as content in print, online and video.
A NatWest spokesperson said, "We wanted to start a conversation about how banks talk to their female customers about money.
"While many women feel confident when it comes to finances and investing, research has shown that a huge number of women don’t feel the same way.
"A recent YouGov survey highlighted that 83% of women feel like banks don’t make products easy to understand and we want to play a leading role in fixing that.
"The Woman’s Worth Collective, established as part of the partnership, is for people who want to influence how NatWest can better serve women. The data will only be shared with NatWest and will not be available to other third parties."
Stylist group added: “We are working with NatWest to highlight an important issue and we have deliberately used stereotypes to make a point which is the start of a 7 month campaign.
"Whenever we discuss issues of gender equality, there are a small number of people who react as we have seen. However, we have been deliberately provocative to raise awareness of the fact there is gender disparity within the financial sector.
"As context, we have circulated 400k magazines and published this content to 2m digitally yet Stylist has received around 50 negative responses. The focus for the campaign now is to listen to all feedback and make meaningful change within the finance industry."
