Online stock trading platform E-Trade has had a turbulent few months, with its stock sinking and the quick exit of its CEO earlier this month. When companies experience changes at the top during troubled times, it’s standard operating procedure to scrap old advertising and marketing campaigns in favor of something new. But not E-Trade, which apparently has no plans to get rid of the creepy, day-trading, talking babies that have been the face of the company for years.

“Love it or hate it, it serves as a tool to make investors aware of E-Trade, and that’s the point,” explains one financial services PR expert to AdAge about the talking baby spots that have been on the air since debuting during the Super Bowl in 2008.

According to AdAge, research shows that E-Trade’s talking baby ads outperform commercials for competitors like Scottrade, Charles Schwab, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade, with high scores for relevance and likability.

What’s more, even though some of us are so creeped out by the E-Trade commercials that we have vowed to never have children, lest they turn into Blackberry-toting d-bags with poorly synched adult voices, AdAge says the ads are apparently doing their job:

In the more than four years since the baby first appeared on the TV screen during the 2008 Super Bowl, the concept continues to drive customer growth, which is now at its highest level. In the first half of 2012, the company said it brought 92,000 net new accounts compared with 99,000 in 2011 and only 54,000 in 2010. More recently, the ads have focused less on laughs as brand builder and more on using humor to highlight specific E-Trade features, such as its investing dashboard and financial consultants.

We’re going to take this as a moment to remind you that you can currently nominate whichever ads you want for Consumerist’s third-annual Worst Ad In America Awards.

Talking Babies Live On: E-Trade’s Management Shakeup Isn’t Ad Related [AdAge.com]

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