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A Bank’s Ads, Dressed Up in Historical Garb
EARLY in the first installment of “America: The Story of Us,” the 12-hour documentary series on the History cable channel that began on April 25 and covers 400 years of United States history, an actor depicting a British soldier bumps into another depicting Paul Revere, and the narrator Liev Schreiber says, “When revolution comes to North America, Revere will be at the center of it.”
Viewers might be momentarily confused when the screen goes dark, signaling a commercial break, only to light up again with men dressed in colonial garb on the cobblestone streets of Boston. The scene cuts to a bow-tied historian named K. C. Johnson, who tells an interviewer, “American colonies before the revolution existed for the economic good of the mother country,” and then to another historian, Steve Gillon, who adds, “The British used money as a way of keeping the Americans down.” Then, to a triumphant flourish of music, the Bank of America logo appears, along with the screen text, “Fueling progress, creating opportunity, building on our heritage.”
The first half of the two-minute spot, produced by the History Channel for Bank of America, the sponsor of the series, reveals the historical significance of the Massachusetts Bank, founded in 1784 and counting among its customers Paul Revere and John Hancock (and, owing to a series of acquisitions, part of Bank of America’s historical DNA). The second half of the commercial focuses on present-day New Bedford, Mass., where the mayor, Scott W. Lang, and other residents praise Bank of America for making loans for revitalization efforts.
The History Channel is producing 12 two-minute videos for Bank of America, each beginning in the same era as the episode, then jumping to a current example of the bank’s civic-mindedness. Representatives of the bank and the cable network do not describe the videos as commercials, preferring the terms “mini-documentaries” or “interstitial content.”
“When the History Channel came to us with this opportunity, it was a neat fit because we are inextricably linked to pivotal points in U.S. history,” said Meredith Verdone, senior vice president of brand, advertising and research at Bank of America. “Our legacy as a company is that we have always fueled opportunity.”
Another part of that legacy, of course, is Bank of America’s role in the financial crisis, borrowing $45 billion in government bailout money and agreeing to pay $150 million to settle charges that it failed to disclose losses and bonus payouts at Merrill Lynch while acquiring the company in 2008. While Bank of America does not address such issues in the mini-documentaries, one story featured during an episode about the Depression highlights that Bank of America helped finance construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the public works projects that helped the country rebound.
Both then and today, said Joseph L. Goode, a Bank of America spokesman, “you see a company like Bank of America acknowledge the industry’s mistakes but then step up and help the country move forward.” In the spots, which will run only during the documentary series, the bank makes repeated references to plans over the next decade to lend $1.5 trillion for community development projects and to contribute $2 billion to charitable causes.
Bank of America spent roughly $4 million to $5 million on the campaign, according to Ms. Verdone. It spent a total of $464 million on advertising in 2009 and $618 million in 2008, according to Kantar Media, a unit of WPP that tracks ad spending.
The first night of the mini-series, which will be shown in two-hour installments each week through May 30, drew 5.7 million viewers, the largest audience in the network’s history.
It is not the first time the History Channel has produced what its president, Nancy Dubuc, called in an interview “interstitial content that highlights their brand in terms of whatever show we’re in at the time.”
A Verizon commercial that had its premiere in March during “Ax Men,” the reality series about logging crews, was shot in a documentary style and featured loggers using a shock- and water-resistant phone.
As for the Bank of America campaign, Mary Bottari, editor of BanksterUSA.org, a Wall Street watchdog Web site published by the Center for Media and Democracy, called it “greedwashing,” a play on the term greenwashing, used to describe companies with questionable environmental practices that employ advertising and public relations to appear more earth-friendly.
“These types of efforts to remake your image after getting pummeled in the financial crisis are happening all over the place,” said Ms. Bottari. She cited as examples the Goldman Sachs announcement in November that it would spend $500 million helping small businesses, and a JPMorgan Chase program last year awarding $25,000 each to 100 charitable organizations, based on votes on Facebook.
Decidedly more enthusiastic about Bank of America’s generosity is the History Channel itself, which benefited not only from the bank buying advertising during the series but also promoting it, both by highlighting it on the Bank of America Web site and by showing trailers on video monitors in more than 1,000 bank branches.
“Clearly when you set out to do a series as ambitious as this you’re taking not only a ratings risk but an economic risk as well,” Ms. Dubuc, the History Channel president, said. “So when something this size comes to life and comes closer to airing we hoped that an advertiser would see the value in it that we did, and Bank of America was a natural partner for us.”
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By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN