Importance of Imagery: Bank of America Botches Chicago Connection Ad

 

The reason we love to use images so much is that the image enhances the message. It allows viewers to both better understand and better connect, except when it’s a bad image. Then it works against what you are trying to accomplish. Becky Yerak of the Chicago Tribune identified how Bank of America made an error in trying to connect to Chicagoans.

In a new print advertisement, Bank of America Corp. tells potential business customers that it will help them "succeed in Chicago or wherever opportunity takes" them.

But marketers at what's now Chicago's No. 1 bank apparently haven't taken themselves to the Trump International Hotel & Tower on the Chicago River.

A full-page ad run by the new owner of LaSalle Bank features a Chicago night skyline that includes the IBM building, the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower -- and what was once the Sun-Times building on Wabash Avenue.

But there's a problem: The Sun-Times building was demolished, a process that started in 2004, and on the site now is the fast-growing Trump tower, which is slated to be more than 90 stories high.

Certainly this one ad isn’t going to kill the BofA brand in Chicago. It’s more something that people in the advertising industry can have a slight laugh at, but it is a good example of how important imagery is. If you’re brand is making one claim, but your image is making another claim, the overall brand is hurt.

“If the claim wasn't 'local commitment,' it would be more understandable, but the fact that they're claiming 'local commitment' and not acting based on that claim means that the brand is giving mixed messages," said John Grace, partner of BrandTaxi, a brand management consulting firm in Greenwich, Conn.

Lesson learned. Watch your images.

Source: Chicago Tribune, "What's Wrong with This Picture?"