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​Nationwide Condemns Death Threats To Advert Stars Flo And Joan

​Nationwide Condemns Death Threats To Advert Stars Flo And Joan

Nationwide has been forced to take action, after the death threats towards the pair escalated to unprecedented levels

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

As with many things that pop up on TV, the Nationwide ads featuring twee singing sisters Flo and Joan has picked up both 'good and bad' reactions from the general public.

However, while some of the bad responses have merely just been someone in front of the telly shrugging the ad off and muttering, 'Well this is crap', on the opposite side of the spectrum it has involved a barrage of death threats.

Now Nationwide has been forced to take action, after the death threats towards the pair escalated to unprecedented levels - taking the opportunity to not only defend the stars, but also raise the dangers with social media.

"Social media has provided a great instant barometer of reaction - good and bad," said Sara Bennison, Nationwide's Chief Marketing Officer.

"The huge amount of likes and shares have been great. But then there are others who have chosen to post the most vile, abusive and misogynistic comments about the duo."

Nationwide

Bennison continued to explain that it's important to call out the 'persistent offenders' who spread hate.

She said: "It is not just our Flo & Joan adverts that generate these comments, it is also our adverts that feature people of different colours, backgrounds and perceived sexuality, which attract the most criticism.

"That's why it is important to call out those persistent offenders who put out vile comments on a regular basis and who should really know better."

Since the adverts surfaced, people have been taking to social media to verbalise their annoyance with the ads, and in some cases even taking their hate for them to extreme levels.

Twitter
Twitter

One person tweeted: "I hope Joan and Flo are in a car accident with James Corden and Ed Sheerhan. All dead. Who wins? Society."

Another said: "So who's chipping in to get these two singing sisters from the Nationwide advert brutally murdered?"

The bank has also revealed that it is now working with Met Police, as well as industry bodies, in order to explore 'the true scale of this worrying trend to spread hate from behind a keyboard and attempt to create a solution to tackle the issue'.

"It's one thing not to like an advert, another to threaten to kill the stars of it. Abuse is abuse and that's never OK in our book," a Nationwide representativetold Ok! magazine.

Flo and Joan - real names Nicola and Rosie Dempsey - are a comedy duo based in Toronto, who travel the world with their keyboard to perform their observational songs.

Originally from Portsmouth, they trained in sketch and improv with the iO, Second City and Bad Dog Comedy Theatres in America and Canada, and their big break came a few years back with viral YouTube hit'The 2016 Song'.

Featured Image Credit: Nationwide

Topics: UK News, advert, Twitter, UK