Conservative group targets Bank of America in new ad campaign over ESG
Zachary Halaschak
Consumers’ Research has launched a campaign targeting Bank of America, accusing the firm of pushing a political agenda through an embrace of environmental, social, and governance principles, or ESG.
ESG has been growing in popularity with corporations and financial institutions, and Consumers’ Research, a conservative nonprofit group, has been pushing back. The latest move includes mobile billboards and a national television ad buy.
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The launch of the new campaign, which was announced on Wednesday, will feature more than a dozen mobile billboards attacking the bank. The billboards, which are running in cities including Charlotte, North Carolina (the bank’s headquarters), New York, and Washington, D.C., emphasize the bank’s ties to China and other issues that the group sees as “woke.”
“How to get a loan from Bank of America,” one billboard reads. “Step 1: Go Woke. Step 2: Get Paid. (note: pro-gun, pro-life, and pro-America need not apply).”
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In a statement, Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, claimed the bank has gone “full woke” and accused the firm of working to undermine the United States.
“We are putting Bank of America on notice. CEO Brian Moynihan has wielded the United States’ second-largest bank like a political club,” Hild said. “Under his watch, the bank has brought China’s social credit system to American soil by using arbitrary ESG metrics to potentially lock individuals and businesses out of key banking services. This is the same bank that helped build the Chinese Communist Party, investing billions of American dollars into China to help facilitate its rise.”
Asked for comment, a Bank of America spokesperson emphasized the firm’s support for communities and dedication to shareholders.
“Bank of America’s focus on responsible growth is how we deliver industry-leading service to our 68 million American consumers, being a great place to work for our employees and supporting communities across the United States while delivering strong returns for our shareholders,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
One of the advertisements highlights Bank of America’s announcement that it will cover the travel costs of employees who live in states with abortion restrictions to get abortions out of state. It also takes issue with the bank’s plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its financing activities, operations, and supply chain before 2050. The company also announced in 2018 that it would stop lending to gun manufacturers that produce military-type firearms, such as AR-15s.
Consumers’ Research additionally released a website satirizing the style of Bank of America’s site and branding the firm “Bank of UnAmerica.” One television advertisement, which will run nationally, claims that the bank funds abortions and bashes the firm’s “woke climate agenda.”
“There’s enough people pushing political agendas in America. Your bank shouldn’t be one of them,” the narrator in the ad says. “Bank of America, their lies start with their name.”
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Bank of America isn’t the first company Consumers’ Research has targeted. BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, and its CEO Larry Fink have been subjected to a monthslong campaign by the group, which has also run advertisements attacking American Airlines, Nike, and Coca-Cola.
ESG, and criticism of ESG, has become a politically salient issue. Republicans on the campaign trail have been lashing out at “woke capitalism” and ESG.
Supporters of ESG view it as a way that the private sector can help make the world a better place through capitalism and the free market, but its critics see the push as an attempt to distort the free market and, in some sense, even the culture of the U.S. through money and corporate influence.
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The issue gained more attention earlier this year when President Joe Biden’s first presidential veto involved ESG.
The Labor Department proposed a rule that would allow retirement plan managers to consider ESG when making investments, and congressional Republicans attempted to override that rule, with the effort passing in the House and Senate and forcing Biden into a veto.