It is a horrible sight to behold: a huge, green plant shakes dollar bills out of a man's pockets as it dangles him upside down over its wide-open mouth. At the same time, the ravenous plant tries to snatch a woman's purse out of her hands with a long branch.
Not to worry, though. It's just another annual report from Vista Federal Credit Union, which serves employees of the Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries. The 2003 report, titled "Little Bank of Horrors," is an homage to the play/movie "Little Shop of Horrors" and its star, the man-eating plant-from-outer-space, "Audrey." Instead of being ensconced in a normal clay pot, Audrey's home soil is labeled "Mega Bank," complete with security lights and an ATM.
"We send our annual report to some of the most creative people in the world, so we usually have fun with it," said Jim Kasch, Vista's director of marketing, business development and alternative delivery. "We try to do things a little bit different to get noticed."
Last year, Vista's annual report for 2002 was modeled on the popular "Golden Book" children's book series. In 1999 and 2000, the theme was comic books. "We made our executives into superheroes," Kasch recalled.
On the cover of this "Playbull," (a tongue-in-cheek reference to "Playbill" magazine) the subtitle reads: "A Money Hungry Bank, Its Poor Customers, And The Daring Credit Union That Saved Them."
Kasch said Vista prints 4,000 copies of its annual report and sends one-quarter to one-third of them to high-ranking Disney executives, many of whom are not members. "Some of these are decision-makers at the sponsor who can make our life easier for us," he said.
