The campaign, paid for out of the levy placed on financial services firms, includes radio adverts voiced by the award-winning Sherlock actor (pictured).
Campbell & Co owner Campbell Robertson said: “It seems absolutely ludicrous spending our money on something like that. I don’t think we need to advertise people getting compensation – they are quite good at doing it themselves.”
Simply Finance owner Ben Larkin added: “If only Richard Briers or Brian Blessed were available they wouldn’t have cost £3m.
“He sounds like Alan Partridge to me, though the women in the office think he sounds sexy.”
Charwin Private Clients director Ranald Mitchell said the FSCS was a source of irritation: “£3m for an advertising campaign – what were they thinking? We got an interim bill recently because they were running out of money.”
However, Middleton Finance owner Daniel Bailey praised the FSCS for their choice of actor: “The main thing is the money is well spent if it is communicating the scheme to the consumers and they know it is there.”
A FSCS spokesman said hiring Cumberbatch represented “a fraction” of the overall cost of the campaign.
The compensation service has justified the cost of the advertising campaign as representing less than 0.5% of the amount spent yearly by the financial services industry on marketing and advertising.
Designed to reassure savers about the safety of their deposits, the adverts will have a bold visual style and feature in print, radio and digital formats.
FSCS chief executive Mark Neale said: “The Financial Services Compensation Scheme protects people when authorised financial services firms go bust. Our research shows a lack of understanding and knowledge about the protection that we provide.
“Our awareness campaign, which includes the latest version of the radio advert, is designed to reassure the majority that their money and savings are safe, and warn those who unwittingly put their money at risk.”
