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Paul Beckett
In one of its current television advertisements, American Express Co. introduces a man named Robert H. Tompkins, identified as a card member since 1958.
"Do you know me?" he asks. "Probably not."
That is a very safe bet. The ad tells of Tompkins's moving to France 40 years ago to learn about wine, falling in love, becoming a vintner and later sponsoring a kids' soccer team called the Tompkins Terrors. In a voice-over, he also thanks American Express for being there "even in the worst of times." An air raid siren wails, the film switches to black and white and a tank rolls through the streets. An American Express representative says soothingly, "We've found a way to get you out."
Tompkins's dramatic tale is not only historically puzzling - war in France after 1958? - it's also fictitious, American Express concedes.
A collage of stories
"It's not Paris - it's anywhere," says Gail Wasserman, an American Express spokeswoman. "This is a collage of stories and things that represent experiences ofreal card members, but not of the same person." Wasserman explains that the locations in the ad, while not specified, are meant to be symbolic of American Express's ability to help its card members all over the world in times of crisis. But a viewer gets only one clue about that: A romantic embrace in the ad is fleetingly described in small white letters as a "fictional dramatization."
Robert H. Tompkins is a real American Express card holder who gave permission for his name to be used in the ad, the company says, but none of the events depicted happened to him. American Express declined to provide any further information about Tompkins, other than to say he is a longtime card member.
Using actors to portray fictional scenes is the lifeblood of advertising. But American Express, famous for its "Do you know me?" ads starring real celebrities, is playing a somewhat different game here. "They have Robert H. Tompkins telling the viewer, "Here I am, I'm this exciting person and I've done exciting things andI'm telling you because I want you to use the card, too.' That's a contract with the viewer, and it's a blatant lie," says Alan Brew, principal of Addison, a San Francisco branding-consulting firm. "They've got themselves into a hole that I don't think they will benefit from."
A spokeswoman for WPP Group PLC's Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, which created the ad, referred calls to American Express.
John Hayes, executive vice-president for global advertising at American Express, says the important thing about the ad isn't that it is fictional but that it accurately shows what services American Express offers. The company was founded in 1850 but began its card service in 1958.
"The advertising is really designed to showcase what we do for card members every day," he says. "The premise is really the way that card members are treated and serviced, and that is all based on fact." What's more, Hayes says, finding a real card member with an interesting story who is willing to appear in an ad is easier said thandone.
"We get letters from card members all the time, but while they are comfortable telling us, not everybody is comfortable telling their story on national television across the US," Hayes says. "Logistically, it is difficult to get what we get in letters to transfer to advertising."
Stephen A. Greyser, professor of marketing and communications at Harvard Business School, says, "I would urge them to look harder for people who fit the model with real adventures, not fictional, if they want to maintain the thrust of the campaign," which for years featured real people in real situations.
The New York company's celebrity "Do you know me?" campaign officially ran only from 1975 to 1986. Later came a series of ads featuring "adventurous spirits" who are also card members, like fashion designer Vera Wang. The Tompkins spot follows a series launched in the past few years that shows how an American Express card comes in handy in "slice-of-life" settings. Those ads also use real card member names in fictionalsettings, but most are more generic - a woman paying her hotel bill, a man paying for golf - and not nearly as elaborate as the Tompkins story.
Does Lela Lee exist
And then there's Lela Lee, "a card member since 1997," who tells her story in another current ad. She's starting her own company, "Lela Lee's Web Design," in San Francisco, and credits the American Express card with helping her set up shop, buy equipment and even fly home to Mom in New York when things get tough. Does she exist? Sort of. The woman who plays Lee is Lela Lee. But she isn't a Web designer. She's an actress.
It's not the first time viewers have been confused by ads for financial-services companies featuring characters that only seemed real. In the early 1990s, Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., now part of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., began running a TV spot with what looked like historical footage of a distinguished-looking man declaring that the firm measured success "one investor at a time." The company received hundredsof inquiries wondering whether the man was founder Dean Witter himself. In fact, he was an actor, and the footage was cleverly shot to look old.
A Dean Witter spokesman said the ad was intended to represent the late founder, and that some of the phrases used were Witter's own.
The Asian Wall Street Journal
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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