17149: TD Bank Campaign Doesn’t Cut It.

 

This TD Bank campaign from Ogilvy Canada demonstrates how White advertising agencies engage in blatant lies and deception under the guise of creative cleverness.

 

For starters, the images underscore the concept only “works” under precise and ideal conditions; that is, most humans will never clearly see and/or grasp the meaning. The campaign looks great for scammy awards entries but constitutes environmental clutter and wasted media placement.

 

The thinking behind the campaign (excerpted below) boasts how the responsible creative team worked around legal requirements. Indeed, the fine print seems fake too, as most financial investment messages require deep disclaimers.

 

In short, the TD Bank campaign is a waste of money—it constitutes a bad investment.

 

In a market first, TD Bank introduced Fractional Shares and needed to show novice investors that they could own a fraction of the biggest and best stocks in the world. The problem? We weren’t allowed to legally show the iconic brands people could invest in. If we did, we could face major lawsuits from the heavily copyrighted logos.

 

Knowing we couldn’t print other brand logos on our ads, we found a loophole that avoided trademark infringement and outsmarted the lawyers. We laser cut a window on each of our custom ads, then strategically placed them where the iconic brand logos already existed — storefronts and offices.

 

Since each logo was at a different height in its natural environment, each placement had to be positioned at the precise angle and distance. And because we were promoting Fractional Shares, we had to ensure every window would only display a fraction of the brand’s logo. Each ad took people to the TD Direct investing page.

 

Where most would see barriers, we saw a window of opportunity to playfully promote our product with a younger audience.

 

16746: Questioning Interest Rates Of U.S. Banks.

 

Mediapost spotlighted a campaign from The New York Times for U.S. Bank, honoring the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance.

 

Okay, but another publication associated with The New York Times—The 1619 Project—might argue U.S. banks have not historically honored Black culture and Black wealth. And U.S. Bank is not exactly without dishonorable moments involving Blacks.

 

U.S. Bank Salutes Harlem Renaissance In ‘New York Times’ Campaign

 

By Fern Siegel

 

The 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance is honored in a new campaign from New York Times Advertising and its in-house content studio T Brand.

 

The creative, produced for U.S. Bank, is a first for the newspaper.

 

It comprises two 12-page zines that pay tribute to the underground press active during this period. It was known as a vibrant age for Blacks artists, writers and musicians and its influence extended nationwide.

 

The first zine for U.S. Bank focuses on Black wealth and entrepreneurs and debuted in the Sunday edition of The New York Times on August 18.

 

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of rich cultural artistry from 1917 to the 1930s. The zines were filled with poetry, stories, news, cultural information and political essays. Jacob Lawrence, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington and Josephine Baker were all part of that era.

 

“These visionaries paved the way for cultural pride and equality, showcasing the brilliance and beauty of Black culture to the world. The first issue, titled Legacy, focuses on the new Black wealth renaissance, exploring the innovative ways in which Black entrepreneurs and creatives are redefining success and prosperity today,” Greg Cunningham, U.S. Bank’s Chief Diversity Officer, told Agency Daily.

 

The initial issue details how Black communities are creating intergenerational wealth, such as The Bradfords, a fourth-generation family of ranchers in Oklahoma.

 

The custom typography of the new zine is called VTC Sarah and was created by Tré Seals. He was inspired by his great-great grandparents’ marriage certificate.

 

The second zine focuses on the contributions of Black artists in various fields. A paid post and FlexXL units will be displayed across The Times’ homepage.

16349: Lendgo, Go Away.

 

Who is Lendgo targeting with its digital communications? And who is designing this stuff? Perhaps the company should direct more finances toward competent advertising.

 

16010: Overreaction Of The Week.

 

J.P. Morgan wants you to see how tokens can supercharge your subscriptions—with what looks like a royalty-free stock photograph of token employees.

15927: Dancing For Dollars And Bank Services…?

 

Not too sure about this Huntington Bank True Story campaign starring diverse dancers—especially “The making of the True Story campaign” video featuring White clients explaining the rationale behind the concept. Maybe it’s an attempt to offset this TikTok collection…?

 

14238: Wells Fargo Re-Bullshitting.

Wells Fargo is re-affirming its commitment to communities—while everyone else is re-affirming Wells Fargo is a culturally clueless criminal.

10212: Predatory Lending Practitioner…?

From The Huffington Post…

Beth Jacobson, Ex-Wells Fargo Employee, Alleges Bank Employed Predatory Lending Practices

The Huffington Post | By Alexander Eichler

Six years after the onset of the housing bust, big banks are still facing allegations that race influenced their lending practices.

Beth Jacobson, a former Wells Fargo loan officer, alleges that the company steered black borrowers into expensive, untenable subprime loans at the height of the housing bubble, The Washington Post reports.

It’s an accusation Wells Fargo has categorically denied. But Jacobson is far from the only person to make such claims about a major bank. A Federal Reserve study in 2009 found that 55 percent of black home buyers were guided toward subprime mortgages by their lenders, compared with just 17 percent of white homebuyers, according to CBS News. At this point, evidence of a pattern is hard to ignore.

Wells Fargo has been hit with at least four major court actions alleging predatory practices on the part of its loan officers—a lawsuit from the city of Baltimore, in which Jacobson’s testimony plays a key role; a separate lawsuit from the city of Memphis; a probe from the Department of Justice; and civil charges from the Federal Reserve, accusing Wells Fargo of pushing thousands of minority borrowers into subprime contracts.

Wells Fargo paid $85 million last year to settle the Federal Reserve charges, without admitting wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, other major lenders—including HSBC and Countrywide, the troubled mortgage servicer later swallowed up by Bank of America—have faced similar accusations.

A former vice president at JPMorgan also reportedly told New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that account executives at that bank sought out financially vulnerable customers—people with limited fluency in English, or little education or experience with the mortgage process—and urged them into subprime loans. These borrowers were disproportionately black and Latino, Kristof writes.

None of this was without consequences. Black and Latino homeowners were 70 percent more likely to lose their homes to foreclosure in the three years leading up to 2010.

9604: Invading Foreign Markets.

HSBC declares, “In the future, there will be no markets left waiting to emerge.” Well, yeah, because White men from financial corporations like HSBC will have colonized the countries, seized control of the foreign markets and defiled the local ladies.

From Ads of the World.

9479: Bouncing Bank Transfer Day.

On Bank Transfer Day, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wells Fargo launched a special bank exclusively for U.S. households with at least $50 million to invest. Brilliant.

Super bank for super rich opens branch in Chicago

By Jennifer Bjorhus

Wells Fargo’s folksy wooden stagecoach is about to go after the carriage trade, as the bank launches a newly reorganized wealth management business aimed at families with $50 million or more to invest.

The new unit, with an office in Chicago, made its debut last week under the name Abbot Downing, after the early 19th century builder of upscale custom stagecoaches. It features a full range of services to cater to the super rich, complete with psychologists and staff to build family genealogies.

Abbot Downing will have $28 billion in assets under management and offices in major cities. The company targets the estimated 10,000 U.S. households with $50 million or more to invest with a particular focus on baby boomers with family businesses to sell.

Banks have been chasing rich people for centuries, of course. But as they struggle to increase profits in the current wobbly economy, bankers are finding the ultra-rich more alluring than ever.

Also driving the trend are the tide of aging baby boomers, various acquisitions banks have made and the costs of regulatory compliance, said Steven Crosby, a senior managing director for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“Clearly it’s a profitable area, and good businesses are always looking to leverage profitable segments,” Crosby said.

Wells Fargo rival U.S. Bancorp announced last spring that it was creating a new boutique unit focused exclusively on investors with assets of $25 million or more. Its new Ascent Private Capital Management unit is set to open in December in Minneapolis.

Jim Steiner, who will lead Abbott Downing, said he’s particularly interested in the rise in mergers-and-acquisitions deals as aging baby boomers face selling the family business and then handling thorny issues related to passing on the money.

“I think over the next five to 10 years, there’s going to be more and more of those kinds of liquidity transactions,” Steiner said.

The business will have a “very boutiquey” feel, he said. In addition to such traditional services as estate planning, it will offer a slew of more personal services, such as help with family dynamics, leadership transition and building family genealogies.

Unchanged will be Wells Fargo Private Bank, another part of Wells Fargo focusing on people with $1 million to $50 million to invest.

Scripps Howard News Service

9478: Checking On Bouncing Banks.

Banks Don’t Like You held its Bank Transfer Day. Did you hug your Credit Union representative today?

8061: The News In Black And Whitey.

Sundry news briefs in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• In Illinois, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney was upset to learn his name appears as “Whitey” on electronic voting machines in nearly two dozen wards. “I don’t want to be identified as ‘Whitey.’ If this is happening in primarily African-American wards, that’s an even bigger concern,” said Whitney. “I don’t know if this is machine politics at play or why this happened.” Gee, talk about White paranoia.

• Olympian Tommie Smith—famous for his Black Power salute at the victory podium—is seeking to sell his medal, with the bidding starting at $250,000. Wow, that’s a fistful of money.

• A National Center for Health Statistics report shows U.S. Latinos outlive Whites and Blacks. Well, that should drive immigration critics crazy.

• Rapper T.I. is credited with helping persuade a suicidal man from jumping off a rooftop. The man agreed to come down in exchange for a few minutes with the actor/recording artist. Actually, T.I. could have accelerated matters by simply shooting the guy down with one of his machine guns.

• The figure for homes repossessed by banks shot to a record total of 102,134 in September, crossing the 100,000 mark for the first time in a single month. Gee, that should have folks jumping off of repossessed roofs.

• Responding to customer complaints, Starbucks has instructed baristas to slow down when making beverages. Other instructions include steaming the milk for drinks one drink at a time versus steaming an entire pitcher and then using it for several drinks, as well as rinsing pitchers right after using them. Some baristas are complaining the new measures are doubling the amount of time customers must wait in line. But honestly, the fact that Starbucks has been operating with such a conveyor belt mentality—coupled with the unsanitary nature of not rinsing pitchers immediately—sure dulls the mystique of the Starbucks experience.

6258: Partnership For Prosperity…?

Wonder how the communities will prosper now that Wachovia has failed to prosper.

6244: Not-So-Funny Money.

Playing around in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• KB toys filed for bankruptcy protection, probably blaming it on the doll housing crisis. Maybe Washington will offer them a bailout—with play money.

• Bank of America announced plans to cut up to 35,000 jobs over the next three years. Seems like a good time for bank employees to bail out of the business.

6080: Falling Profits? Bank On It.

Late-breaking market reports in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Not to be outdone by other failing banks, National City reported 3Q losses at $5.15 billion and announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs. Looks like National City should have charged fees after all. Lots and lots of fees.

• Apple reported a 26 percent profit jump, spiked by iPhone sales. Ironically, the PC character is doing quite well financially.

• Yahoo! saw 3Q profits drop 64 percent, prompting the decision to cut 1,500 jobs. First, Washington Mutual had to stifle its Whoo hoo! Now, there’s uncomfortable silence from Yahoo! Quick, somebody check on Yoo-hoo!

6062: A Legacy Of Lameness.

These ads have been around for a while, and even appeared on this blog via past posts. But given the current bank fiascos, it seemed appropriate to take another look. Both Black-targeted messages make reference to building a legacy. Looks like C. David Moody may have to rethink his idea on the topic.

6050: FYI 3Q 411.

Profiting with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Coca-Cola reported a 14 percent increase in 3Q profits. While U.S. sales were weak, the overall profit boost came from emerging markets. Maybe the U.S. should trade Coke for oil.

• Delta Airlines reported 3Q losses at $50 million. That’s probably about $1 for every piece of luggage the airline lost.

• Wells Fargo 3Q profits dropped 25 percent. It’s pretty crazy when your profits drop so dramatically, but you’re still able to find $14.4 billion to buy another bank.

6049: A New Tradition Interrupted.

Um, maybe Great-Grandma knew what she was doing after all.

6042: Banks, Business and Books.

The bad business section in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Now the government will buy an ownership stake in various American banks in response to the current economic crisis. Um, let’s hope officials steer clear of Wachovia. It’s just another reason for advertising agencies to avoid accounts for banks. At this point, you don’t even want to deal with Tyra Banks.

• News sources reported General Motors and Chrysler have held merger talks. If a deal is consummated, car buyers will have one less automaker to ignore.

• Mickey D’s restaurants in Venezuela were shut down for 48 hours by the government after “inconsistencies” were discovered in sales and purchasing records. In addition to the regular junk food fare, was the fast feeder also cooking the books?

6031: Corporate Love Connections.

Rocky relationships in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Wachovia, Wells Fargo and Citigroup agreed to calm down and not pursue legal action yet. At least until noon on Wednesday. Which gives Ogilvy & Mather employees an extra day to update their résumés.

• Bank of America reported 3Q profits dropped 68 percent. Maybe they’ll soon join Wachovia, Wells Fargo and Citigroup as a foursome.

• Mars and Wrigley consummated a $23 billion marriage. The wedding buffet featured lots of Doublemint gum and Snickers bars. Wonder which ad agencies will be left holding the bouquet in this hookup.

6027: A Few More Reasons To Hate Mondays.

Cutting remarks in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Kraft was slated to announce major job cuts on Monday. As if employees needed another reason to hate Mondays.

• eBay announced plans to cut 1,000 employees, or 10 percent of its workforce. Their company name tags and office supplies will go on auction soon.

• Wells Fargo and Citigroup continued to battle through the weekend over the opportunity to buy Wachovia, with neither side giving in. Meanwhile Ogilvy & Mather employees are probably withdrawing any savings from all three banks.