Can Big Banks Learn from Alec Baldwin?

As everyone knows, earlier this week Alec Baldwin acted foolishly on an American Airlines plane.  He then publicly blasted the flight attendant for the way they handled the situation.  After being silent about it for a few days, Baldwin decided to spoof the incident on SNL and was able to save face.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/309553/saturday-night-live-weekend-update-capt-steve-rogers

After watching this, I started thinking about Alec’s Capital One commercials.

Which of course got me to thinking about Big Banks and led to this blog: Can Big Banks Learn from Alec Baldwin?

Last month Big Banks had a lot of bad press; they were criticized for trying to pass a monthly debit card usage fee.  Big Banks tried to hide it, then tried to justify it, and finally stated they were no longer going to institute the new fee.

Imagine if a Big Bank would have produced several commercials, both online and TV based, making fun of the fact that actually considered adding a monthly debit card usage fee. Does the idea of a big bank making a spoofed comedy commercial sound crazy to you?  If so, consider Ally Bank.  Ally has been doing comic commercials for a few years now.  The only difference is they are making fun of other banks instead of poking fun at themselves.

If Big Banks like BoA, Regions or SunTrust would have shown a comedic side after deciding to not charge additional debit card fees they could have held on to some customers and earned some good publicity.  Instead they sent out traditional press releases announcing their decisions, which made them look even more stuffy and disconnected from the angry public.  One day they may learn their lesson.  One day…