I quit doing business with this bank years ago for any number of corporate misdeeds both at home and abroad, but it’s over-the-top to think of how many executives had to sign off on this ad without any of them realizing how offensive it is to anyone pursuing a career in the arts. As if artistic kids don’t have to put up with enough already …
http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Theatre-Community-Reacts-to-Disparaging-Wells-Fargo-Ad-20160903
Then they issued a badly written apology to which the Twitter responses from members of the Broadway community are hilarious …
I didn’t see the ads and I also won’t do business with them willingly. I also read that their partnership with Amazon for student loans has ended, just six weeks after it began. I am not sure why.
@fishbowlfreshman Actually, you’d likely be surprised by the number of executives who would have to sign off on an ad like this. Very few. Probably just one and that one is likely not even a senior executive.
Wells Fargo, like most of the big banks, donates a ton of money to the arts every year. I think I’ll forgive them this ad.
I was appalled by this ad, too, even though I see how the creators of it might have actually thought they were extolling the virtues of art in youths’ lives.
In my eyes, this ad values art as a hobby for kids/teens, which is fantastic, but it devalues art as a profession; it’s portrayed as not serious enough, which is ridiculous. If they had also had a spread which said something like, “An actress today; an actress tomorrow… Let’s get them ready for tomorrow,” they could have shown that arts are a meaningful, worthwhile career, just like accounting, science, etc. Instead, arts are shown as simply a stepping stone.
Maybe I’m too sensitive about it, but it seems many had the same reaction. I agreed with the vast majority of comments made in and following a couple articles about this, including one which said, “The stories we tell (and the way we tell them) matter. It may not have been Wells Fargo’s intention, but the way this add was executed supports the cultural narrative that the arts are something we do as a hobby while the ‘real’ work is in more important areas like science. It supports the idea that arts can exist, but they should be in utilitarian service to other endeavors.”
I forgive them this ad, too, since they apologized, but, since they seem to value the arts so much, they should’ve thought this through a little better.
But often these dreams turn out to be fantasies and the failed artist needs a plan B.
So? There are a lot of people who plan on going into any number of professions but who don’t actually go into them, find they aren’t what they wanted, or fail in them. Does that mean that they actively need a plan B going into college/training? (BTW, my D and many others in her artistic profession, including people represented on this board, do not have a plan B. Many, again including some from this board, have graduated and still don’t have or need a plan B; they are making careers in the arts quite nicely, thank you. Others do go different directions or focus on a couple different areas, just like people in other professions.)
How does your point validate an ad that devalues the arts, anyway? Just because there are people that don’t make it in the arts, it is okay to portray it a “less than” career choice?
Plenty of people fail out of engineering, too, and yet that’s often presented as the most practical of majors.
Real disconnect in the ads. Makes you wonder what happened in the advertising agency. Makes you wonder how creative people (who you’d think would know better) came up with it. Or maybe there were many versions and the wrong ones were decided upon. Or they hadn’t hired a creative person and needed one.
Be interesting to know.
The ads may have resonated differently if the pictures were of children–the two year old in a tutu at a dance class and a child finger painting in elementary school. " Ballerina today, an engineer tomorrow" And then copy with the “prepare for kid’s future” message.
Could also have been finger painting to animator or artist or whatever. Or tutu to ballerina. Or bug collector to entomologist. Or lemonade stand to CEO.
So many ways to go. Looks like they blew a potentially great ad campaign.
Then their apology really misses the mark using the word “creative” as a noun. Might be advertising lingo but its not everyday vernacular thereby missing a connection with the target audience. More poor execution.
The people at the ad agency were like, yup, “Actor today…soul-less corporate cog tomorrow, sounds about right to me.”
Maybe it was a CC parent who wrote it. LOL.
Wells Fargo must have missed the studies that show that theater majors have LOWER unemployment rates than computer/tech majors:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/07/30/tech-job-unemployment/2595669/
I was offended by this ad and glad someone posted on CC as I was going to start my own post. My main message to DS is to do what he loves and he loves the arts. The economy has changed so much and after the 2007 recession where I even saw engineers struggling to find work one never knows what the future brings. One thing is sure that as long as you love what you do you will find a way to make a living.