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An employee of Mercantile Bank in Grand Rapids, Mich., showed a crowd of eager pupils how to get in touch with their inner-zombies at an event teaching the steps from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.
October 25
Stay calm if you see a mob of bankers dancing like South Korean rapper Psy in a lobby, park or elevator.
They're likely making a "Gangnam Style" video.
Several banks have posted their own version of Gangnam Style on YouTube, choreographed dance and all.
Citizens Bank of Edmond in Oklahoma and the largest Korean-American bank, BBCN Bancorp (BBCN) in Los Angeles, produced videos of staff dancing down the aisles and in the streets primarily as a reward for employees.
But
"They all had such a great time, and we received a lot community support," said Jill Castilla, executive vice president and chief credit officer at Citizens Bank. "We received calls saying that if we ever wanted to do it again, they wanted to be involved."
The video was meant to reward the bank's employees for doing 111 days of community service at a middle school, fine arts institute and other local institutions. Nearly all the employees, including board members and executives of the $278 million-asset bank, participated.
"Seeing executives cut loose a little bit was just great for everyone," said Castilla, noting that the board members practiced the least. "It's been a difficult time these last few years," and this video is a "celebration of being in a good spot and surviving another crisis."
At the $5.3 billion-asset BBCN, some employees put together the
"Every corporation has its own personality, so it really amounts to the people forgetting where they came from and beginning to talk as 'I'm a member of BBCN Bank'," Kang said.
The Gangnam Style song is known by Koreans for mocking a wealthier district in Seoul named Gangnam. That made the Citizens Bank video all the more humorous when an employee stood in front of the vault, throwing money bags off a register.
The bank has spent the last week playing the video in its lobby and on its drive-through screens. Who said bankers don't have a sense of humor?
