WASHINGTON -
He may be the only 84-year-old guy who re-emerged in 2007 looking considerably younger.
In 2007 CUNA reintroduced the “Little Guy” to America, designed to represent the role credit unions play in helping the little guy to achieve his financial goals. It was certainly a busy year for the Little Guy, who showed up all over Washington and Capitol Hill, not to mention YouTube.
A smiling, gentle-looking character with a football-shaped head, the Little Guy is aimed at being the American Everyman, his sleeves rolled up and ready to work.
The Little Guy is a reincarnation of the Little Man Under the Umbrella, sometimes called the “Umbrella Man,” who was created in 1923 by artist Joseph Stern for the Boston Globe.
He would go on to represent the credit union movement in the U.S. for the next 40 years, a symbol that the credit union would protect members from hard times, sickness and financial distress.
His image would spread around the world in the 1950s when CUNA created an international services department. By the 1960s, however, the Little Man Under the Umbrella had begun to look dated, and he was quietly retired to the archives.
In unveiling the updated “Little Guy” in 2007, CUNA spokesperson Pat Keefe said the goal was to “use him as a visual reminder of who it is that credit unions serve, which has been a critical component in our effort to ‘change the conversation’ on Capitol Hill about credit unions.”
Specifically, CUNA’s goal is to “change” the way the banking industry has defined credit unions to how credit unions define credit unions.
According to Keefe, CUNA’s “rough estimate” is that the Little Guy in some fashion was seen by members of Congress and their staffs more than 65,000 times during 2007.
The Little Guy appeared on buttons distributed the opening day of Congress, as “flat” Little Guys handed to members of Congress and staff members; in a YouTube video telling “the Story of the Little Guy,” in ads placed in publications read on Capitol Hill, in “street theater” where thousands of commuters heard a mocking take on bankers’ complaints about credit unions; in editorial cartoons e-mailed to Capitol Hill; on t-shirts worn by credit union volunteers as they opened doors for and shielded the rain from Members of Congress and staff members; on small boxes of mints distributed to Hill staffers, and in videos distributed by e-mail poking fun at banker complaints about credit unions.
CUNA said it has seen a payoff in lawmakers and their staffs understanding who credit unions are and what they stand for. Look for him again in 2008, or online at www.lookoutforthelittleguy.org. (c) 2007 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
