While I’ve previously suggested that credit unions start apublic awareness campaign similar to “GotMilk?” U.S. Senate FCU’s “BigPlans?” advertisement wasn’t what I had in mind.

Calling the ad in poor taste is doubly redundant. Of course,it’s going to rile the feminists, and if you’re known for beingedgy, you can get away with it, like the Girls on Trampolinessegment from “The Man Show” from Comedy Central in the early 2000s.U.S. Senate FCU is not “The Man Show.”

U.S. Senate FCU is a rather button-down organization as mostcredit unions necessarily are. Those that are edgy are far morecreative than a gratuitous cleavage shot. The credit union’smarketing department that designed or approved this mailer is ateam of boobs.

However, I’m not offended personally. People are far tooconcerned about political correctness. I’m all for equalopportunity objectification. Since this design was just one piecein the larger “big plans” marketing campaign, I expect the next adwill feature a man’s large–feet. A sort of tit for tat.

Like when professional athletes or movie actors that misbehavewithout breaking the law (though a bit of notoriety can perk uptheir popularity), U.S. Senate FCU is held to a higher standard dueto the very nature of its field of membership. Think about whoreceived or saw this male-r: senators and their aids, theirspouses, their children and who knows who else. These people holdthe future of credit union business lending and supplementalcapital in their hands. Even if they aren’t outraged–namely becausethey’re taking a loan out right now for their girlfriend’s plasticsurgery–they have to behave as if they are because theirconstituents, who also may have received the advertisement, couldbe upset.

At $563 million in assets, you’d think its marketing would bemore sophisticated and just better. The ad doesn’t even conveywhatever it is they’re advertising. I have no idea what it’spromoting.

The ad wasn’t the worst of it. An email sent to members,obtained by RollCall’s blog Heard on the Hill, which originally busted thestory wide open, read:

“We sincerely regret the message we conveyed did not meet withyour approval. Our marketing efforts have evolved with thetimes as we seek to relate to various life events of ourmembership. These may include paying for such traditionalthings as for weddings, children’s braces and purchasing autos butalso more personal activities that many people seeknowadays. We recognize any of these may not directly relate toanyone’s personal situation, and we will make every attempt toexclude you from future mailings.”

The blog’s analysis of this message is dead on. If you don’tlike our marketing, tough ta-tas. While the credit union apologizedfor the imagery used in the ad, I haven’t seen anything promisingthe credit union will discontinue using it.

And the credit union’s apology in a letter to the editor of HuffingtonPost.com(published as a comment at the bottom of the story) was cold andinadequate. But as a result, an online petition calling for heads to roll and sensitivity training atU.S. Senate FCU was shut down.

Quasi-victory for both sides.

The public relations work afterward was almost as bad as the ad.U.S. Senate opted not to speak to Credit Union Timesbeyond sharing the lukewarm letter that was sent to Roll Call. Thecredit union didn’t realize its cups runneth over withopportunities in the PR fallout.

So the credit union royally screwed up, and it was picked up byHuffPo, one of the most read news sites in existence. And it waspicked up by Roll Call, widely read on Capitol Hill. Andwe picked it up, the most widely read, independent credit unionindustry news source. Local radio and television networks picked upthe story. All were knockers of the ad campaign.

Bouncing back from the mistake immediately is important, unlessyou don’t believe it was a mistake. Issuing a statement to membersand the press was the right thing to do, though two days later isincredibly slow. But a written statement is not going to win overyour D-tractors. To do that you need to appear genuine, and thatmeans putting a face to the apology, even if only in writing.Explaining the other 95% of your big plans and talking about whatyou’re doing to resolve the issue or controls put in place toprevent it from happening again.

Obviously, you don’t want to bring more attention to it, butdoing this immediately, in one shot and very publicly, could havegone a long way in public relations control. It would demonstrateintegrity and that U.S. Senate FCU is a place that makes thingsright.

Otherwise your efforts seem fake. Cross my heart.