Howard from the Halifax adverts rose to fame in the early 2000s. He was a mainstay of the bank's commercials for nearly 10 years, with the former cashier becoming an overnight sensation due to his lively singing and funky dancing.
Almost two decades later, Howard's life has taken a different path from the cult status he achieved during his acting career. But let's start at the beginning.
Rewind your memories back to the year 2000. At that time, a 34 year-old Howard Brown was employed at a Halifax branch in the West Midlands, aspiring to be promoted to manager.
On a whim, he auditioned for one of the bank's TV commercials - and was stunned when he discovered he'd landed the role. The person who decided Howard was the perfect choice to represent the national banking chain certainly earned their salary that day.
When it came time to shoot the advert, Howard was instructed to bring only a suit, a tie, and his passport. Little did he know, his entire life was about to transform, reports the Mirror.
Howard made his debut on our screens on Boxing Day 2000, when the entire nation watched him groove to a parody of Tom Jones' hit Sexbomb, before being magically whisked away to a farm where he serenaded a fish - naturally - and continued to have a thoroughly enjoyable time. This was before the era of YouTube or TikTok, yet the advert still managed to become a huge viral sensation.
The follow-up adverts featuring Howard proved even more popular, with the catchphrase "Who gives you extra!" being chanted in beer gardens, school playgrounds, and high streets across the UK. He even made a cameo appearance as himself in the 2003 Christmas Special episode of The Office.
In 2008, Howard decided to retire from his role as the Halifax advert star and took up a position in the bank's public relations team. He left the company in 2011 but returned to our screens in 2017 with an advert for Hotels.com and an appearance on Channel 4's First Dates.
However, in 2022, Howard made headlines again for a different reason. He publicly criticized his former employer, Halifax, for introducing a policy of including pronouns on employee name badges.
The Birmingham native described the attitude towards customers as "shocking, wrong and disappointing" and told the Daily Mail that he wouldn't want to wear a pronoun badge if he still worked for the bank.
"I think it's disgraceful," he said. "It's a service industry – you should leave politics to the politicians. They've got this one wrong.
"If I was a customer, I would be extremely upset. Customers are a precious commodity. You have to look after them. When you work in a service industry, you are there to serve your customers."
Howard even released a song, titled What Happened? which railed against the diversity initiative. With lyrics like "Why do you hector me with your identity?", and "Is there a new pronoun every day?" the song raised eyebrows and left a number of listeners befuddled when it was released in 2023.
Despite the mixed reactions, the bank stood by its policy. A representative insisted to Pink News: "We want to create a safe and accepting environment that opens the conversation around gender identity.
"We care about our customers' and colleagues' individual preferences so, for us, it's a very simple solution to accidental misgendering."
