As HR departments look at increasingly smart ways of using social media for recruitment purposes, multinational bank ING has launched a new campaign on its Facebook careers page, aiming to make the business of banking a whole lot more transparent.

The ‘Next Generation Banking’ campaign sees a bunch of cute kids pose basic – but relevant and oft-debated – questions about the banking industry. Those considering a career in banking are then asked to submit a clear and concise response, simple yet informative enough that even a child could understand it. First up: “Why do we need banks?”

Now, on one hand the campaign is bravely touching on a controversial subject which is at the forefront of everyone’s minds; the economic climate is taking a dive and people have questions and concerns about what’s best for their money. This campaign aims to start an important dialogue.

On the other hand, people are angry and fed up with bank scandals, austerity measures, unemployment, rising prices, inflation… it goes on. As such a campaign of this nature is going to attract some critics. Some harsh critics:

The campaign is planned to run until February 15^th, with new video questions posed every week. Its mix of seemingly patronising banking fan-dom and furious negativity will likely make for entertaining observation.