I was just informed that we are working on our first TV commercial and management wants to include interviews from employees. There is no plan at this time to include anything about our products or rates. It would be just generic advertising that the bank is here and why everyone should bank with us. I believe we are wanting it to be 30 seconds or less, but I am not sure if it will be. Besides complete fear of this whole thing, what should I be concerned with when reviewing this commercial? Will only the Member FDIC/EHL logos need to be included?

If it's pure branding/awareness, probably not much. If trigger terms get involved, that's a different story. Most that I see include the FDIC verbiage and often the EHL info, even when it doesn't apply. Overkill doesn't hurt, but if you don't need it, use the time for something more useful, or don't pay for the extra time in the first place!

I'd make sure you only use first names for employees, if you use them at all. If I had my preference, I'd leave out name entirely, and just have them in a shirt with a logo to make it clear they're an employee. Social media makes it a bit too easy to connect the dots. (e.g. we recently had a teller who got a friend request on Facebook from a customer, based only on a first-name-only name tag, but they have an unusual spelling so it was pretty easy to find her)

we do TV advertising, but it is around our city and what a great place to live, highlighting unique things about it...we have "member FDIC" stated and show up at the end after we name our bank as the commercial fades out...we may have an employee or do in the commercial doing something that looks "employee-like" such as giving a receipt to a customer, or greeting them at a lobby door...employee names are never mentioned...if interior shots of any branch, no name plates or name tags are visible, and no personal photos are included if showing a desk or workspace...

Thank you both for your input. I'm still a newbie at this, so I greatly appreciate the help!

There are two cautionary type tales here...one, our HR dept insisted we have a lot of diversity in the employees used. We truly didn't have that much in the bank at the time. They summoned up an employee from a small community branch based on her last name. They were surprised to have their very Scandinavian looking employee show up when they clearly thought they were getting someone Hispanic. Don't make those kinds of mistakes. Also, we put an employee in a TV commercial, only to find ourselves in the position of having to terminate her shortly after it aired. For this reason I would prefer to use model/actors rather than actual employees, but that is just my opinion.

Ok, thanks. Management seems pretty set on using employees. Luckily we are a small bank so everyone knows everyone (for getting diversity). Those are definitely things to consider though!

probably a release from your employees to use them in the commercial