I turned the page of the newspaper and caught a glimpse of the ad. It appeared to be a supermarket promotion. Seemed likely since it was Wednesday, which is the day the grocery ads fill the paper.

There was a photograph of a cow and the word “MEAT” jumped out of the headline. “Moooove” was another word I noticed. I was already scanning another page when my brain said, “Hey, wasn’t there an Equal Housing Lender logo in the corner?”

What a surprise. It was an ad for a credit union offering to refinance loans. There was an offer…$50 for moving (or mooooving) my loan to the credit union.

Here’s one more attempt to use humor that fails.

This ad is a mere 5 x 4 inches. It tries so hard to squeeze puns into the copy that the core offer — refinance a loan and get $50 cash as a bonus — is lost.

I’ve cropped the bottom of the ad to hide the logo and identifying details. The logo, phone numbers, address, website, and other important information are tiny and reversed out of a purple background.

Look at the image. Decide if the average person who is scanning a newspaper will recognize this loan ad in the midst of a group of similarly sized, colorful ads for all sorts of products.

I assume this idea came from the in-house marketer who thought it would be so different from other credit union and bank ads that it would attract attention.

You can use it as an example of how you should handle your advertising differently:

• Focus on your offer
• Don’t let your clever idea overwhelm the ad
• Use graphics appropriate to your offer — people like some animal pictures, but stick with people photos
• Be careful using reversed-out type — it’s hard to read, especially with small font sizes
• Watch your color palate — heavy ink coverage and saturated colors don’t reproduce well on newsprint

Both Steve Topper and I have given you dozens of examples of misguided advertising over the months. Take a trip through the archive and review a few of those posts. Don’t fall into the same traps as other credit union and bank marketers.