The CFP Board of Standards launched a new series of public awareness ads today, including a TV spot that features a gyrating, dreadlocked DJ pretending to be a financial planner.
The new ads are the 2014 installments of a $10-million-a-year television, radio, print and online campaign the board launched in 2011. This year's campaign offers a light-hearted look at the way appearances can be deceiving, featuring a disc jockey posing as a financial advisor as he interviews clients about retirement and other financial issues.
At the end of the 30-second piece, the clients tell the advisor he has their complete trust, only to have him turn around and admit to being a DJ who has absolutely no knowledge of financial issues. The commercial ends showing the phoney advisor dancing wildly in front of the deceived clients, with a voiceover that states, “If they’re not a CFP pro, you just don’t know.”
The aim of the advertisement is to show clients they need to check an advisor’s credentials and not believe someone who just looks and talks the part, because he or she might be someone completely unqualified to give financial advice, according to the CFP Board.
“We want people to know if they are not dealing with a CFP professional they do not know who they are dealing with,” says Tom Crowder, the board’s managing director of marketing and development.
“Many consumers do not know where to go. Many are sitting on the sidelines or doing their planning themselves because they do not know who to trust. When you choose a CFP professional, you know who you are dealing with.”
The public awareness campaign has thus far been successful, according to Ray Ferrara, chairman of the CFP Board’s board of directors. In interviews to test the success of the campaign, the number of people who mentioned the CFP designation without being prompted by the interviewer as one of the certifications for financial advisors rose 4 percent and those who mentioned it first rose 7 percent, he said.
The campaign targets those with $100,000 to $1 million in investable assets between the ages of 35 and 64. It also targets “initiators,” or those likely to seek expert advice and those comfortable working as a member of a team, Crowder says.
The board came under some criticism after it announced the campaign in 2010 along with a $145-a-year increase in certification fees, to a total of $325 annually. The fee increase and funds from the board’s reserves are used to fund the campaign. If the campaign continues to prove successful, it will be continued indefinitely, Ferrara says.
Print advertisements will be placed near the “best of” lists in relevant magazines. The online ads will appear as paid banners on various Web sites. Radio ads will be aired on NPR and print ones will appear in magazines.