The banking industry’s image has suffered as fees have jumped and foreclosures have spiked, so bankers in Utah are trying to change the public’s perception.
“Some people perceive us as fee-grubbing, parasitic, and greedy,” said Michael Pazzi, an executive vice president in Salt Lake City for Wells Fargo & Co. “We want people to know that we are very concerned about our communities, that we want to have better schools and encourage” business growth.
The Utah Bankers Association, which Mr. Pazzi chairs, began airing a series of commercials last month to remind residents of the role banks play in building communities.
Dale Gunther, vice chairman of the $864 million-asset Bank of American Fork, said that the ads are intended to remind people that banks support a lot of nonprofits, charities, and school programs such as marching bands and athletic teams through grants.
“Some people look at banks as the bad guys, and that we’re just in it for the profit,” Mr. Gunther said. “But profit is not a dirty word — it is the means by which we can grow more opportunities in our communities, and profits enable us to donate to worthy causes.”
The 30-second and 60-second spots are airing on television stations in all the state’s media markets, as well as in movie theatres in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Provo.
The commercials depict various Utahans — including a rancher, a restaurant owner, a teacher, an engineer, a firefighter, and a doctor treating a teen and her baby at a nonprofit clinic — “laboring today, fulfilling the pioneering spirit tomorrow.”
Howard Headlee, the president of the Utah group, said it launched the $200,000 ad campaign in part to commemorate the Utah Bankers’ 100th anniversary.
Bank trade groups typically confine their advertising to print, and even then the ads often are geared toward public officials who might be considering banking-related legislation.
From time to time state bank groups have launched campaigns to highlight the activities of member banks.
In 2006 the Oregon Bankers Association distributed to the news media and state legislators an updated version of a booklet, “Oregon Banks: Cornerstones of Our Communities,” which described how member banks helped their communities by making small-business and affordable housing loans and contributing to local charities.
Linda Navarro, the group’s president and chief executive, said at the time that Oregon bankers wanted lawmakers to keep these things in mind as they considered legislation that could add to banks’ regulatory burden.
Last summer the Wisconsin Bankers Association launched a statewide radio and TV campaign to advise consumers on how to spot and avoid lenders that encourage borrowers to take out risky loans, such as adjustable-rate mortgages with teaser rates that skyrocket if homeowners do not refinance multiple times.
At the time, Eric Skrum, the Wisconsin group’s communications director, said it launched the campaign to remind people that many of the loans that produced the mortgage meltdown had been made by unregulated lenders, and that in most instances banks “weren’t part of the problem, but part of the solution.”
Carol Kaplan, a spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association, said it was smart for the Utah group to remind people just how much bankers are the backbone of their communities, “because banks are easy targets” and often can be taken for granted.
“I don’t think the banks expect the commercials to have an immediate impact, but there’s nothing like building good relationships over the long term with the communities you serve,” Ms. Kaplan said.
