Howard Brown is a former customer services' representative and current sales ambassador for HBOS plc, which owns both Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank (previously the Halifax Building Society) in the United Kingdom. He is known for his appearances in Halifax television advertisements, often singing and dancing. He was born in Sheldon, Birmingham, England in 1966. Brown rose to fame when Halifax Bank decided to involve their staff in a new series of adverts. The campaign was the brainchild of DLKW Creative Directors Malcolm Green and Gary Betts, who had previously found fame when they launched the Gary Lineker Walkers Crisps campaign. Auditions were held and Brown was selected by Green and Betts to spearhead the new advertising drive for the bank in 2000. This featured several employees singing about the bank to the tunes of well known pop music tracks in films directed by people from the world of pop promos. Brown was the first and most popular of these employees, and has gone on to star in several adverts for Halifax, both in person and in animated form.