In Dicey Times, Will Humor Comfort Leery Bank Patrons?

(MoneyWatch)  In a bleak holiday season marked by employee layoffs, runaway foreclosures, and an ongoing bank crisis, some financial services firms are putting a humorous spin into their advertising. The idea may be to engage with frustrated consumers by giving them a chuckle, but such a lighthearted approach will more likely irritate and risk a backlash.

Trying to put the "fun" back in mutual funds can seem overly glib when many consumers have lost a chunk of their savings. Chris Palmeri of BusinessWeek commented in late September about WaMu's iconoclastic ad campaign featuring a young, hip WaMu rep comically disparaging traditional suited bankers for their fee-happy ways. He panned WaMu's approach in consideration of the Seattle bank's eventual and spectacular failure.

FirstBank offered up an ad campaign built around the concept of "inexpensive" ideas for Christmas gifts, including posting generic art scenes that the Colorado bank jokingly suggests customers photograph and frame to give as a gift. "The idea is funnier than it seems," said Angela Natividad of AdRants, who seemed to favor the ad's "delectable tongue-in-cheek quality." But in another blog post, a reader commented: "I don't get it. At all. It seems like a slap in the face." For many consumers, a return to the basics of financial advertising would be safer: keep your tone sincere, offer a good value, and give a little something extra.

"I can't emphasize enough our desire to take advantage of the heightened awareness consumers have about banks, albeit for negative reasons -- Typically, it's a Herculean task to get people to pay attention," said marketing exec John Cunningham of TD Bank in the Times article. TD Bank is giving away free pizza and "green" laundry bags to create good will with customers in New York and Philadelphia among other cities.

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