Wells Fargo, an American international banking and financial services holding company, is facing the ire of netizens for a disparaging ad that purportedly portrays the pursuit of arts as inferior to sports and the sciences.
The questionable ad has been circulating online since the weekend, depicting young people conducting science experiments as part of the company’s marketing for their upcoming “Teen Day” project.
The first includes the text, “A ballerina yesterday. An engineer today,” while the other one reads, “An actor yesterday. A botanist today.” Both images are then followed by the sentence, “Let’s get them ready for tomorrow,” printed in italicized letters.
Screen Grab from Twitter.
As expected, many artists and members of the professional theater community took to social media to express their outrage on the arts being devalued in favor of “more lucrative” pursuits.
Apparently @WellsFargo doesn’t think that an actor or a ballerina require any work at all! Shame pic.twitter.com/BZyLZOQmUw
— Cynthia Erivo (@CynthiaEriVo) September 3, 2016
Dear @WellsFargo: This ad stinks. Sincerely, An actor whose mortgage you hold #theatre #dance #grownupscanbeactors pic.twitter.com/Jk2amZShGh
— Jeff Kready (@JK_Ready) September 3, 2016
Some even raved about how pursuing arts saved their lives.
Screen grab from Twitter/@andymientus
Screen Grab from Twitter/@perry_sawyer
Wells Fargo is not the first multinational company accused of belittling the pursuit of arts , as AT&T and Old Navy received flak from arts professionals due to their advertisements.
The company has yet to address the public outcry, as of this writing. Khristian Ibarrola/rga