Howard Brown (Halifax Bank)

Last updated

Howard Brown
Born1966 (age 57–58)
Sheldon, Birmingham, England
Genres Advertising
Occupation(s)Singer, sales ambassador
Years active2000–2008, 2017, 2020–present

Howard Brown (born c. 1966) [1] is a former customer services representative and sales ambassador for HBOS plc, which owned both Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank (previously the Halifax Building Society) in the United Kingdom. He is best known for his appearances in Halifax/HBOS television advertisements, often singing and dancing.

Contents

Biography

He was born in Sheldon, Birmingham, and is of Barbadian [1] descent.

Halifax

Between 1994 and 2011 Brown worked for HBOS Group. Brown became the star of the HBOS Marketing Campaign in 2000, which resulted in him singing in most of his adverts.

In June 2022, Halifax Bank announced on Twitter that they would begin adding pronouns to name tags. This received some criticism on social media, and in response Halifax doubled-down on their stance. [2] Howard Brown condemned this decision, saying, “I think it’s disgraceful. It’s a service industry – you should leave politics to the politicians. They’ve got this one wrong.” [3]

Music and television career

In 2003, he had a role in The Office Christmas special, playing himself alongside Ricky Gervais as David Brent and Paul "Bubble" Ferguson from Big Brother 2. The three men took part in a nightclub promotion Blind Date game which was hosted by Mike McClean. Brown and Bubble were getting on much better with the female contestant than Brent, much to his dissatisfaction. When Brown sat down, McClean shouted at the audience "Who gives you extra?" to which they replied "Who Who Who?". This is a reference to the Halifax advert which sings "Who gives you extra?" to the tune of "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by the Baha Men. Brown does not actually sing in that particular advert as it was performed by Matt Thornfield and Brown only appeared in cartoon form.

In 2004, the Bank Of Scotland dropped Brown from their versions of the adverts, as the style of the adverts was not well received by its customers. [4] In 2005, he released a cover of the Barry White song You're the First, the Last, My Everything as a charity single. [5] It peaked at number 13 in the UK Singles Chart.

From April 2008, Brown no longer starred in the Halifax adverts, instead taking a role in its public relations department. [6] [7] In 2011, he left the company. [8]

In 2017, Brown made a cameo return to the world of advertising in an advert for Hotels.com. [9]

In February 2020, Brown appeared on the TV show First Dates . [10] The same episode was reacted to on the TV show Gogglebox .

In February 2021, Brown appeared on the TV show Hypothetical (TV series) in its third season as a special guest [11] [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Broadbent</span> British actor (born 1949)

James Broadbent is an English actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, he came to prominence as a character actor for his many roles in film and television. He has received various accolades including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, an International Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halifax (bank)</span> British bank

Halifax is a British banking brand operating as a trading division of Bank of Scotland, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Germans</span> 6th episode of the 1st series of Fawlty Towers

"The Germans" is the sixth episode of the British television sitcom Fawlty Towers. Written by John Cleese and Connie Booth and directed by John Howard Davies, it was first broadcast on BBC2 on 24 October 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominic West</span> English actor (born 1969)

Dominic Gerard Francis Eagleton West is an English actor, director and musician. He is best known for playing Jimmy McNulty in HBO's The Wire (2002–2008), Noah Solloway in Showtime's The Affair (2014–2019), the latter of which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama nomination, Ebenezer Scrooge’s nephew Fred in A Christmas Carol, and Charles, Prince of Wales, in the Netflix drama The Crown (2022–2023), the latter of which earned him nominations for another Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Rhodes</span> English chef and restaurateur (1960–2019)

Gary Rhodes was an English restaurateur and television chef, known for his love of English cuisine and ingredients and for his distinctive spiked hair style. He fronted shows such as MasterChef, MasterChef USA, Hell's Kitchen, and his own series, Rhodes Around Britain. As well as owning several restaurants, Rhodes also had his own line of cookware and bread mixes. Rhodes went on to feature in the ITV1 programme Saturday Cooks, as well as the UKTV Food show Local Food Hero before his sudden death at age 59.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgin Media</span> British television and telecommunications company

Virgin Media Limited is a telecommunications company from Britain, founded in 2007, which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaun Williamson</span> English actor, singer, media personality and occasional presenter

Shaun Williamson is an English actor best known as Barry Evans in EastEnders and as a satirical version of himself in the BBC/HBO sitcom Extras, 'Barry off EastEnders'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicola Walker</span> British actress (born 1970)

Nicola Jane Walker is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programmes from the 1990s onwards, including that of Ruth Evershed in the spy drama Spooks and DCI Cassie Stuart in Unforgotten (2015–2021). She has also worked in theatre, radio and film. She won the 2013 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and was twice nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for the BBC drama Last Tango in Halifax.

European Home Retail plc (EHR) was a listed UK company, operating in home retail. Though registered in Swindon, Wiltshire, its head office was based in Warmley, Bristol. On 13 October 2006, it was announced EHR and its subsidiary Farepak had gone into administration.

Bank of Scotland International Limited was the international banking division of Bank of Scotland. Established in 2003, it was headquartered in Jersey, and operated branches on the Isle of Man and Hong Kong, until merging with Lloyds TSB Offshore in 2011 as Lloyds TSB International brand.

Safestyle UK plc, part of the Safestyle UK , was a provider of PVCu double glazed windows, doors, French doors, patio sliding doors, bifolding doors and conservatories in the United Kingdom.

James Robert Crosby is an English banker. He was Deputy Chairman of the Financial Services Authority from January 2004 until he resigned on 11 February 2006. He had previously been the chief executive of Halifax Bank until its merger with Bank of Scotland to form HBOS, of which he was Chief Executive until 2006. On 3 December 2012, Crosby was required to appear before Britain's Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Hornby</span> English businessman

Andy Hornby is an English businessman, currently chief executive of The Restaurant Group, a British chain of restaurants and public houses.

U&W is a British free-to-air television channel owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC Studios. It originally launched on 7 October 2008 as Watch and until 2022 was a pay television channel. From 15 February 2016 to 16 July 2024, the channel was known as W.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HBOS</span> United Kingdom banking and insurance company

HBOS plc is a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Bank of Scotland and Halifax brands in the UK, as well as HBOS Australia and HBOS Insurance & Investment Group Limited, the group's insurance division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lloyds Banking Group</span> British financial institution

Lloyds Banking Group plc is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank was founded in 1765 but the wider Group's heritage extends over 320 years, dating back to the founding of the Bank of Scotland by the Parliament of Scotland in 1695.

Dougal Stewart Wilson is an English director of commercials, music videos and films. His work includes directing several John Lewis Christmas adverts and the Grammy-nominated music video for "Life in Technicolor II" (2009) by Coldplay. He is set to make his feature film debut with Paddington in Peru (2024), the third instalment in the Paddington franchise.

Halifax Share Dealing is a British online broker, allowing customers to buy and sell shares in UK and international companies across a range of markets.

In late 2000, UK bank Halifax began a long-running television advertisement campaign featuring staff singing popular songs with the words changed to reflect its financial services products.

<i>Hypothetical</i> (TV series) British TV series or programme

Hypothetical is a British television comedy panel show created by British comedian Josh Widdicombe, with Tom Craine and Matthew Crosby. Widdicombe hosts the show alongside fellow comedian James Acaster. The TV series features teams of celebrity guests, who are presented with a bizarre hypothetical situation by Widdicombe. The guests must explain how they would deal with the situation, following the rules given by Acaster, who then awards points based on how well he thinks they have done. The show ran for four series, from 6 February 2019 to 6 July 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 Salter, Jessica (26 September 2008). "Halifax's Howard buys £800,000 second home". The Daily Telegraph . London.
  2. ↑ Narwan, Gurpreet (29 June 2022). "You're welcome to close your accounts if you don't like pronoun badges, Halifax tells customers". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 1 July 2022.
  3. ↑ Bolton, Will (1 July 2022). "Halifax branded 'disgraceful' by most famous employee in pronouns row". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 2 July 2022.
  4. ↑ MacDonald, Stuart (3 November 2004). "HOWARD'S AWAY; Customers hated the singing banker". Daily Record . Glasgow.
  5. ↑ Lake, Howard (17 January 2005). "Halifax's Howard Brown launches charity single for NSPCC".
  6. ↑ Elkes, Neil (21 April 2008). "Howard Brown axed from Halifax adverts". Birmingham Mail . Retrieved 17 August 2008.
  7. ↑ Green, Chris (6 August 2008). "Howard's end: he's too happy for a recession". The Independent . London. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  8. ↑ Peck, Tom (20 May 2011). "Howard quits Halifax after bank decides his face no longer fits". The Independent. London.
  9. ↑ "Captain Obvious Brings Broadway to Britain in Musical Hotels.com Spot | LBBOnline". www.lbbonline.com. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  10. ↑ "Halifax Howard represents Worcester on First Dates". Worcester News. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  11. ↑ UKTV. "Hypothetical, Series 3, Episode 3 - Hypothetical on UKTV Play". UKTV Play. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  12. ↑ Mwitumwa, Monde (2 July 2022). "Howard from the Halifax adverts' life now from First Dates to pronoun badge row" . Retrieved 23 August 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.