We’re pretty sure Wells Fargo didn’t commit its recent goof for the benefit of teachers at the nearly 500 colleges and universities in the U.S. that have programs in PR, advertising, strategic communications and integrated marketing communications.
Still, the financial brand’s inexcusable print ads, which seemed to urge youngsters to forego careers in the arts in favor of positions in science and technology, provided excellent lecture material for instructors teaching the estimated 51,000+ students enrolled in PR, advertising and strategic communications courses.
Our friend Andy Gilman and his colleagues at CommCore Consulting Group likely are already preparing a video on the incident to include in their series What Were They Thinking? Should Gilman be able to discover the answer to that question in this case, the video will be a must-see.
The incident also is likely to be cited during presentations at industry events, such as those PR News organizes. Unfortunately for Wells Fargo, several of those who blasted the brand’s message on social media over the weekend were celebrities. The incident caught fire, making it to Twitter’s Moments section, the platform's collection of trending items.
The offending ads, promoting the company’s Sept. 17 Teen Financial Education Day program, showed an image of a young woman smiling and looking at tools with the headline: “A ballerina yesterday. An engineer today.” Another ad, showing a beaming young man at work on an experiment, said: “An actor yesterday. A botanist today.” Both ads contained the tagline “Let’s get them ready for tomorrow.”
See, a textbook example of what not to do as a national brand that promotes diversity, inclusion and, by the way, the arts.
On the other hand, a balanced retelling of the incident will include the fact that Wells Fargo apologized quickly and with the correct tone. And a representative of the brand has promised to reach out to PR News to discuss the incident.
In any case, the social media hubbub began late Friday, Sept. 2 and the following afternoon. A few hours later, Wells Fargo distributed its apology socially: “Wells Fargo is deeply committed to the arts, and we offer our sincere apology for the initial ads promoting our Sept. 17 Teen Financial Education Day. They were intended to celebrate all the aspirations of young people and fell short of that goal. We are making changes to the campaign’s creative that better reflect our company’s core value of embracing diversity and inclusion, and our support of the arts. Last year, Wells Fargo’s support of the arts, culture and education totaled $93 million."
There are more than a few lessons PR teachers and students can mine from the tone and timing of Wells Fargo’s response. In addition, goodness knows there’s a bevy of lessons to be learned about the faulty ad copy. Dumping on the arts is probably not the most expeditious way to get young people excited about science and technology. Highlighting the work of a great scientist, the direct approach, would have been a better strategy. Of course, you have to wonder how many people at Wells Fargo and its creative agency approved this campaign? Were Wells Fargo’s PR pros part of the vetting process?
Some of the outcry from the arts community over the ads preceded the apology; some came after it was issued. An example of the weekend’s social media activity had the singer and actor Laura Benanti (@LauraBenanti) tweeting to Wells Fargo: YOU GUYS!! APPARENTLY “TOMORROW” WILL HAVE NO ARTISTS IN IT JUST A S*#T TON OF BOTANISTS AND ENGINEERS!
With tongue firmly in cheek, actor Zachary Levi (@ZacharyLevi) responded to Benanti’s tweet: Laura, we ALL know that there is no point to the arts, or aspiring in them. Thank you @WellsFargo for the reminder!
Recording artist Josh Groban (@joshgroban) tweeted: Brb gonna take out a Wells Fargo loan to go write Botany: The Musical!
PR consultant Danielle Fairlee mentioned ballet star Misty Copeland and creator of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton Lin Manuel Miranda in her tweet: To the next @mistyonpointe and @lin_manuel maybe you pick a different bank than @WellsFargo.
We’ll predict that not too many future artists, years from now, will avoid Wells Fargo based on this unfortunate incident. Still, it will be up to the brand’s communications team to make sure that’s so. Equally important, its communicators should be doing their best to insure the brand's future ads are more appropriate.
Follow Seth Arenstein: @skarenstein