Wells Fargo Insults the Arts

9/16/2016

by David Hagenbuch, founder of Mindful Marketing & author of Honorable Influence

One of the reasons our world works is because different people are able to do different jobs. Not everyone can be a plumber or a police officer; we also need electricians, EMTs, etc. Still, aren’t there some occupations that are just more important than others? That’s the message Wells Fargo seemed to suggest in its recent, controversial ad campaign.

In order to promote its Teen Financial Education Day on September 17, the nation’s leading mortgage lender created two different print ads, both featuring young people in their future careers. One was of a girl entering engineering, the other of a boy beginning botany. At first glance, the ads seemed edifying. A closer review of the copy, however, raised the ire of many:
“A ballerina yesterday. An engineer today.”
“An actor yesterday. A botanist today.”

Both ads also contained the tagline “Let’s get them ready for tomorrow,” alongside the pictures of the talented teens. So, weren’t the ads a nice way of encouraging young people to pursue their dreams? Although some may have had that interpretation, many others saw condescension aimed at acting and dancing, as well as at an entire segment of society: the arts. Among the many negative reactions were the following tweets:

“Apparently @WellsFargo doesn't think that an actor or a ballerina require any work at all! Shame” (@CynthiaEriVo).
“Dear @WellsFargo: This ad stinks. Sincerely, An actor whose mortgage you hold #theatre #dance #grownupscanbeactors” (@JK_Ready).
“*whispers. We make more money than your botanistttttttttttt. Wells FarGoooooo... awayyyyyyy” (@ChrisMzCarrell).

In addition, a variety of well-known artists condemned the ads. Among those speaking out were: songwriter Robert Lopez (“Frozen”), singer Josh Groban, and actors Anthony Rapp(“Rent”), Cynthia Erivo (“The Color Purple”), and Jenna Ushkowitz (“Glee”).

The last thing most companies want to do is to upset current customers or repel prospective ones. Perhaps, therefore, Wells Fargo had a noble purpose in mind for the ads. Many believe that STEM occupations (science, technology, engineering, and math) are the key to America’s economic future, yet many STEM-related jobs go unfilled because of too few qualified candidates. So, maybe Wells Fargo was trying to help reverse the trend and better position our nation for the future?

Unfortunately, there were at least three problems with Wells Fargo’s approach:
1) If Wells Fargo wanted to support STEM occupations, there are better ways to do so than by highlighting them in ads at the expense of other careers. The company has annual income over $22 billion and cash and cash equivalents over $713 billion. It would be easy, therefore, for Wells Fargo to write a check for several million dollars to support STEM education.

2) Even if nations need more STEM-educated workers than they now have, they still need others as well. What would a world look like without actors, dancers, musicians, painters, and other artists? By practicing their trades and sharing their talents, they make life more colorful and enjoyable for most of us. As suggested at the onset of this piece, every job is important in some way, and arts occupations make a very special contribution to society.

3) Just as not everyone is gifted to be a professional athlete or artist, not everyone is cut out to be a scientist, engineer, or mathematician. “Science is not something that you can just do. It requires [unique] talent and ability.” Rather than encouraging people to embark on career paths that are not right for them, we do better for individuals and society by “matching the appropriate talent with the appropriate opportunity.”

It’s unlikely that Wells Fargo’s antagonizing campaign created stakeholder value. The public backlash described above pretty much guaranteed the ads’ inefficacy in terms of moving people into mortgages or building brand equity. At the same time, the ads also failed to show respect for a key people group: those learning and working in the arts.

To Wells Fargo’s credit, it realized its mistake and apologized. The company tweeted: “Wells Fargo is deeply committed to the arts, and we offer our sincere apology for the initial ads promoting September 17 Teen Financial Day. They were intended to celebrate all of the aspirations of young people and fell short of our goal . . . Last year, Wells Fargo’s support of the arts, culture, and education totaled $93 million. ”

The company’s mea culpa was certainly a good thing; however, such remorse cannot reverse the damage already done. Wells Fargo’s alienation of the arts, therefore, will be remembered as an act of “Mindless Marketing.”

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21 Comments

Garrett Amsbaugh

9/21/2016 10:16:20 pm

While I doubt what the media said about Wells Fargo's ad is the message they wanted to get out. They definitely had different intentions on the ad. They obviously should have thought it out a little differently for sure. Whoever came up with the idea should've taken a double take on this and saw what is going to come of it. Small things, even an ad like that can definitely bring questioning and maybe hurt to your company. It definitely is important to look at it from their stand point, and a consumers stand point as well. Wells Fargo all in all made a bad decision putting this up and they're paying the price for it.

Makenzie Neal

9/21/2016 11:00:14 pm

I agree that Wells Fargo created a very mindless advertisement. Being a former dancer myself, I took offensive to this advertisement. This advertisement made it seem as though dance and acting was not a career, just a high school hobby. Which is not the case at all. I agree with the question of what would the world look like without the performing arts in it? I personally think it would be a very dull world. I think the performing arts creates a lot of enjoyment for the world.
I also think this advertisement is almost encouraging people to not follow their dreams of having a career in the arts and focus on a more stable career. It implies that a job in the arts is not something that should be pursued, instead is just a hobby. This ad would be able to appeal to a wider audience if it encouraged it audiences to pursue any dream career.
I understand that Wells Fargo wanted to support and help promote STEM jobs, but putting down other career paths was not the way to do it. They could have promoted and supported STEM jobs in different ways; by either creating different advertisements that focused just on STEM or, as stated in the blog, donating to STEM education. Wells Fargo could have created a much more mindful advertisement.

Emily Reiff

9/21/2016 11:31:48 pm

I would definitely agree that the Wells Fargo campaign was mindless marketing. As a Digital Media major focusing in the arts, I do not appreciate the disregard for the arts this campaign depicted. In our society, I often feel that the STEM fields are viewed as higher and more prestigious than the arts. People tend to think of the STEM fields as hard and competitive areas of work while the arts are viewed at a lower status. The arts are a very competitive field to be in and I feel that Wells Fargo’s marketing strategies reinstated the common thoughts . I have seen that those not studying or working in the arts tend to view the arts as fun and more easy. I would say that those who are successful in the STEM occupations and those who are successful in the arts work just as hard. It is just a different kind of hardworking. I feel that this marketing campaign reinforced these wrong views of different areas of work. The Wells Fargo campaign could have been very successful if they had focused on the teenagers chasing their dreams in a variety of areas, instead of just the STEM careers. There is something beautiful about how each person has a different set of skills and a different dream. They would have communicated that message much clearer if they had been more diverse in the careers they mentioned.

Ryan Hentschel

9/22/2016 01:22:04 am

I do not think that I was Wells Fargo’s intention to undermined the dreams of young individuals. In fact, I think that their intentions were positive. From my understanding, Wells Fargo only wanted to show that they would support the efforts of children to further their education; the way they did it, however, was a far less than desirable mean of promoting their support in higher education. I think that they totally missed the fact that people can have a very successful career and life as actors and dancers. The ad seems condescending to me because they seem to say that the children of our country need to grow up and figure out what their real job will be. They showed total disregard for the dreams of the children that they are trying to help succeed. I completely agree that this ad was utterly mindless and it shows no compassion for the people who want to make careers out of the arts.

Steven Alexander Chen

9/22/2016 01:31:10 am

As an artist myself, I found the Wells Fargo ad campaign to be very insulting. In my opinion, it was a very poor choice for their marketing team, and was definitely a form of Mindless marketing. It did a very poor job of upholding any societal values because it essentially criticized artists, and therefore did not create any stakeholder value for any consumer remotely connected to the arts.

Joseph Lorgunpai

9/22/2016 01:56:56 am

As a human being, I find this advertisement to be offensive and a huge failure a huge company the stature of Wells Fargo should not have to deal with if the team had been more meticulous. However, the idea on how math and sciences are fields in which people respect you more is a notion I grew up with in an Asian culture back in Thailand. Parents would push their children to pursue careers such as Engineering or the Medical field just so other people would see that their children are "successful." That being said, the ad was totally mindless and I did not like their cover up of saying how they supported Arts the year before. I am a firm believer in taking action on one's mistake and see what one can do to make the situation better rather than bring a good thing one has done in the past.

Joseph Lorgunpai

9/22/2016 02:09:37 am

FULL VERSION
Joseph Lorgunpai
Marketing
9/22/16
Ethics Assignment
Mindful Marketing Blog Wells Fargo
As a human being, I find this advertisement to be offensive and a huge failure a huge company the stature of Wells Fargo should not have to deal with if the team had been more meticulous. However, the idea on how math and sciences are fields in which people respect you more is a notion I grew up with in an Asian culture back in Thailand. Parents would push their children to pursue careers such as Engineering or the Medical field just so other people would see that their children are "successful." That being said, the ad was totally mindless. First, they did not appreciate the beauty in diversity in different fields. In a modern culture where civil rights is huge, where every race, gender orientation, and person from different economic class are represented, the ad that discourages people from arts surely did not uphold societal value. Also, the advertisement definitely did not increase the stakeholder value, as there are artists that have bank accounts in Wells Fargo. And since artists have a huge role in everyday life, from Oscar nominated actors to Grammy nominated singers, media outcry from these celebrities definitely decreased the brand value. I did not like their cover up of saying how they supported arts the year before either. I am a firm believer in taking action on one's mistake and see what one can do to make the situation better rather than bring a good thing one has done in the past.

Madison O'Donnell

9/22/2016 10:22:26 am

As an art major I am very offended by this article. All of the arts, but specifically fine arts, are very important for marketing in the area of advertisements. Graphic designers make the ad visually appealing so people are more willing to buy a product. Without graphic design, many things would be very plain and boring, including everyday things like shampoo bottles and cereal boxes. Even though STEM careers are obviously important for their own reasons, the arts are equally important for their own.

Eric Herbein

9/22/2016 10:53:11 am

I agree 100% with the mindful meter at the top that this advertisement is mindless. Ever since a little kid I've wanted to be a Major league baseball player, and many other kids have dreams as far as the eye can see. That's perfectly alright to have dreams and ambitions that large. In this ad Wells Fargo is saying the opposite. They are saying that stop living dreams and get a "real" job. Being an actor or a dancer is not going to get you far in life, so becoming an engineer or a scientist is the best way to go if you want a successful life. Wells Fargo made a mistake in making an ad like this because hundreds of thousands of parents see this and think to themselves about how wrong they are. Many people have had dreams of what they wanted to be in the future and kids and others are allowed to have dreams. Wells Fargo saying that just discourages the dreams of kids and others who see this. That other jobs are not gonna be as good as a scientist and won't go far in life. We need other jobs in the world that are unique to the rest of us. There should be entertainers, athletes, and other careers out there for anyone. Without these unique jobs, our world would be very bland and boring. It would be nice if everyone was skilled enough to be a scientist, but unfortunately that’s not how the world works. Wells Fargo, from this ad, would like the world to work like that, so everyone could be skilled like that. This was a huge mistake on Wells Fargo’s part and they should take immediate action to remove that ad and make a public apology to everyone.

Hayley Swenski

9/22/2016 12:24:33 pm

I agree completely with the mindful meter that this advertisement is mindless. People have a wide variety of skill sets and ambitions that may not lead them to society's vision of a "typical job". Instead, these people are going out and following their dreams, using the talents that God gave them in order to do so. In this ad, however, it seems as though these people's dreams are being shown as not good enough. Overall, they shouldn't have even posted this ad. Obviously whenever they were creating it, they weren't thinking about how other people may have interpreted it.

Raul Serrano

9/22/2016 10:56:27 pm

I would definitely agree that this was mindless marketing. Wells Fargo failed to realize that their audience is everyone in the world. Because of their lack of respect for the arts in this article they received a suitable backlash from the community. I believe that Wells Fargo did a terrible job marketing this Teen Financial Day. Their comments cut down other professions and aspirations. To cut down somebody's passion and area of expertise is very disrespectful. Everyone is different. God made us all different. We are all created unique and special. God is the potter and we are the clay. He made us all perfect having our own uniqueness. Therefore, I do not approve of the statements Well Fargo suggested. I believe all of us have our own goals in dreams that God set on our hearts. All of these goals and dreams are equal, as the world needs all of these professions to function in the manner God intended. Wells Fargo further emphasized in this example why knowing your audience, word choice, and ultimately getting the correct message across in marketing is vital.

Jean Hwang

10/18/2016 06:19:26 pm

When I first heard of this incident, I thought that people were joking. I never thought that such a huge company would have made such a mindless blunder. It was even more shocking because Wells Fargo serves all segments of society. To think that they would release ads that offended a huge segment of society, the arts, is mind-boggling. From what I am learning of marketing, it seems such mistakes are inevitable. However, it is important to see how the company reacts to the mistake. I think that they could have put more emphasis on apologizing. The apology that was issued was a tweet and was very short. Of the short tweet, they spent one sentence on apologizing. And they used the rest of the tweet to focus on them as a company. Their last sentence of how much Wells Fargo supported the arts really made an impact. It was as if they were justifying their ads by saying they pour so much money into supporting the arts; that it was okay for their mistake to happen because they support the arts. The apology would have been better accepted if they really owned up to the mistake instead of glossing over it.

Claire Rodrian

10/21/2016 04:00:26 pm

This ad seems harmless at first, but when taking at second glance at them, they actually hold many negative connotations regarding certain career choices. While they may involve very different levels of education and ability, all of the professions listed in the advertisements are valid and very important. Wells Fargo had no intention of offending people, but they certainly did with these ads. This marketing campaign was clearly unsuccessful and had a negative impact on the company.

Rachel Stanley

10/23/2016 05:31:17 pm

I honestly can’t believe Wells Fargo would release an advertisement like this. Why does someone have to let go of his or her artistic talent in order to “get ready for tomorrow”? By contrasting 2 careers in this way, they are implicitly ranking them in the order of successfulness or importance. No career is inherently “less” than another career. Everyone has unique skills, which makes our culture interesting. If everyone was a scientist, society would no longer function the way we know it. This advertisement is directly insulting the arts—more specifically the performance arts.

This is definitely an example of “Mindless Marketing” because it was not effective in any way. It did not uphold societal values nor did it add value to the stakeholders. Thankfully the company did apologize, but I do not think that was enough. Regardless of the apology, people who were impacted by the ad will not associate Wells Fargo with the arts in any positive way. It was definitely the kind of thing that showed the company’s underlying values, and people are not quick to forget that. I can’t help but wonder if the person who created the advertisement was fired or if the advertisement was reviewed before it was published.

Agnes Abigail Limuria

10/23/2016 07:45:17 pm

I agree that this is a sample of mindless marketing. It is unwise, unprofessional, and ineffective. A good marketing should not try to capture a market segment at the expense of other market segment or customers. A good moral marketing should be able to promote without the expense of other customers. For a company that is well established and has thousands of dollars for its marketing research, such ignorant slip should not be tolerated. Regardless of the apology, the damage has been done. It shows a deep rooted problem in the American society how we still hold the mindset that certain degree and profession are more valuable than the other.

Joshua Singleton

10/24/2016 03:33:49 am

I completely agree with the analysis of this ad. I am a big fan of the arts; be it films, music, painting, photography, or sculpting, I find it a true expression of the human spirit as well as a vital aspect of our society as a whole. That being said, I agree with the backlash against Wells Fargo's ad. It is apparent that they failed to keep in mind that although their target segment was parents and teens, there are a broad range of desires and goals for people within that demographic. As it was stated in this article, not everyone wants a career in the field of science or business, or is even cut out for it in that manner. Thus it would be important for Wells Fargo to move forward by attempting to create ads that take into account the varying aspirations of the youth that they are attempting to market to.

Austin Prock

10/24/2016 02:15:19 pm

I saw this advertisement and the uproar it caused on social media. Some really good points were made. If you want to support something, its not a great idea to do that at the expense of other people. Its great to encourage STEM fields and Wells Fargo had great intentions to do that but they hurt a lot of people in an attempt to encourage something else. If I could make a critization, it would be on the formatting of these blogs. I don't know the intended audience but the language and format of the blogs seems really elementary. There were many alliterations that distracted me from the potential depth of these analysations.

Dianna Hernandez

10/24/2016 11:09:37 pm

Wells Fargo’s advertisement for this day was definitely mindless marketing. I can see the direction that they wanted to go with this, however if they really want to show their support for STEM there are other ways to go about it. I can’t believe that this ad was actually approved by someone, and that they let this get out. It is very offensive, because in both examples the arts are put down. I think what they were trying to empower teens and show that they can do whatever they set their mind to, and that it doesn’t matter what your gender is. At least that is what I thought since they had ballerina contrasting with engineer, however in doing this they not only put down the arts but they made it seem as if only certain jobs are important. I wonder if they intentionally picked arts(a ballerina, and an actor) to contrast with the other jobs for their ads. They could have gone with some other occupation, but with the way it was set up it still would have been offensive.

Erin Moon

10/24/2016 11:22:06 pm

It was shocking to hear that such a prominent company with a growing number of consumers published this offensive ad. Although I aspire to be a STEM-educated worker, in no way do I scorn people who have pursued their dreams -- especially those with careers in the arts. I definitely would not have approved of this ad being published, due to its discouragement of pursuing one's dreams, STEM-related or not.

River Fawley

10/25/2016 01:49:43 am

Though this ad is meant to show that engineering and botany trying to show the progression of people and their dreams, Wells Fargo did not achieve the desired affect they were looking for. From the ad that they sent out, it was seen as though Wells Fargo undermined the occupations of an actor and ballerina. Now this can be seen in either two ways: one, these two sets of jobs are not comparable, two, these two jobs are not as beneficial compared to the other two. I want to focus on number two. I argue that these two occupations (actor and ballerina) are need just as much as both a botanist and an engineer. during the great depression, society didn't know where to look or to turn there wasn't a solid place place a foundation. People certainly didn't look at engineers or botanist to distract them from the world around them, they turned to entertainment. Actors and ballerinas helped society in ways engineers and botanists could not, they helped relieve the stress of life during those times.

Adi lal

10/25/2016 02:26:56 am

i agree that this is an act of mindless marketing as this neither upholds societal values nor creates stake holder values. I understand that it is good to prepare the young generation to become something and to guide them but in order to do putting other profession down is wrong. i t was wrong of them to compare two different professions and saying one is better than the other.

Wells Fargo Insults the Arts

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