Sometimes 2026 feels like a dystopian nightmare. When tech leaders make remarks comparing the energy it takes to “train” a human compared to LLMs and Amazon reportedly has plans to use robots over 600,000 human hires, it’s hard not to feel like that nightmare is a reality.
But the reality isn’t so black-and-white, and that nuance is central to the message that TD Bank is leaning into with its new brand platform, “More Human,” which imagines a world where tech and humans work together for a better future for all.
Over the course of a 60-second spot created by Publicis Groupe Canada, a delivery robot travels throughout a city with passersby curiously observing its moves and lending a hand—one woman even helps prop up the robot after it gets stuck in a pothole—until it ultimately delivers a coffee to a crossing guard.
“It’s a relatable and real-world example,” TD Bank CMO Jennie Platt told Marketing Brew. The brand’s point of view, she told us, is that while technology has its positives, “it’s got to exist in a world of humans, and we’ve got to figure out how to merge and blend the role that humans play with the role of technology. They need to help each other.”
To Platt, that message is the right one for a financial institution like TD Bank, as “banking can often be seen as still transactional, cold, and full of friction.” At the same time, “banking can be very complex,” which requires the embrace of digital innovations that are in service to customers.
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“We’re very people-centric,” Platt said. “We really focus a lot on how we show up for our customers.”
It remains to be seen whether that message lands, but the bank is tapping into a broader moment in marketing where brand marketers are grappling with consumers who might look skeptically upon tech and tech marketing, including how those messages are made.
Douglas Brundage, founder of brand studio Kingsland, told Marketing Brew that he believed the financial institution “is reading something real” in its human-centric message, which he noted many AI companies are currently embracing in their own marketing messages.
“The 2008 financial crisis essentially destroyed whatever residual goodwill banks had,” Brundage wrote in an email, adding that the “More Human” campaign seemed designed to leverage nostalgia and to reclaim the warmth of a bygone era.
The message could potentially stand out among consumers eager for personalized services.
“After an era of everything getting optimized into frictionless anonymity—banking, shopping, even dating—people are genuinely starved for institutions that acknowledge they exist,” he said.
Eunice Shin, founder of brand consultancy The Elume Group, told us that for the message to stick the landing, though, consumers will need to feel that human touch in their other experiences.
“How that translates to what the experience is truly like” will be something to watch, Shin said.
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