Nader Criticizes Wells Fargo's ATM Captive-Customer Ads, High Fees

[Gary Ruskin <gary@essential.org>]

Commercial Alert					March 9, 1999

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                       NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:			For More Information Contact:
Tuesday, March 9, 1999			Gary Ruskin (202) 296-2787

Nader Criticizes Wells Fargo's ATM Captive-Customer Ads, High Fees

	Not only does Wells Fargo charge its customers high fees for using
another bank's ATM, now it wants to force consumers to watch ads on its
ATM screens during transactions.  "Wells Fargo wants to make you watch
ads and gouge you with ATM fees," Ralph Nader said.  "We encourage
consumers to avoid the ads and the fees by taking their business
elsewhere."

	On March 1st, Wells Fargo launched its ad-laden Express ATM Network,
with 340 ATMs in San Francisco, San Jose, Marin, San Mateo, Contra Costa
and Alameda counties in California.  Wells Fargo boasts that its new
Network is great for advertisers because "it gives them 100 percent of
the consumer's attention and the ad is guaranteed to be seen." It says
that the ads "will gradually roll out across the company's territory,"
which includes 6,248 ATMs. 

	"Wells Fargo wants to turn ATM users into captive ad watchers," said
Gary Ruskin, director of Commercial Alert.  "This is the latest example
of how advertisers will stop at nothing to put an ad in your face."

	Advertising to captive audiences is growing trend. Along with Wells
Fargo, other notable purveyors of coercive advertising include Channel
One and ZapMe!, which force children to watch ads in schools,
Screenvision Cinema Network and Theater Radio Network, which force ads
upon moviegoers, and the CNN Airport Network.

	Floyd Miller, of Miller/Huber Relationship Marketing, defended the ATM
ads to the San Francisco Chronicle: "As consumers continue to get
bombarded by advertising messages everywhere, it's as viable a place as
any."

	Forty-five years ago, Charles Black Jr., the great legal scholar, wrote
an essay on the dangers of coercive advertising schemes.  "I tremble for
the sanity of a society that talks, on the level of abstract principle,
of the precious integrity of the individual mind," he wrote, "and all
the while, on the level of concrete fact, forces the individual mind to
spend a good part of every day under bombardment with whatever some
crowd of promoters want to throw at it."

	California Wells Fargo customers must pay a heavy $1.50 surcharge for
using another bank's ATM, according to John Golinger of California
Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG).  California State Senator
Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) has reintroduced state legislation (SB
270) to ban these non-customer ATM surcharges.  According to the San
Diego Union-Tribune, "Perhaps not coincidentally, the lone Wells Fargo
ATM that does not assess a noncustomer surcharge is located in the
[Sacramento] Capitol basement, next to a coffee stand frequented by
legislators and their staff members."

	Nader pointed out that ATMs were promoted early on as saving customers
time and money, because they kept bank costs low.  Now, banks are using
ATMs as a profit center.

	Amazon.com, the online bookseller, is one of the first advertisers on
the Wells Fargo ATMs. In a notable example of how commercialism can
destroy integrity and credibility, Amazon.com recently admitted that
publishers had paid as much as $10,000 for the favor of having a book
featured in the "Destined for Greatness" or "What We're Reading"
sections of its web page.

	"Amazon.com is a leader in offensive advertising and marketing
practices," Ruskin said.  "We hope consumers will reject their crass
commercialism, and lack of integrity, by supporting local independent
booksellers instead."

	Commercial Alert was founded last year to oppose the excesses of
commercialism, advertising and marketing.  The web address for
Commercial Alert is <http://www.essential.org/alert/>.

                               -30-

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Commercial Alert is a Ralph Nader watchdog group working to oppose the
excesses of advertising, marketing and commercialism.

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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
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