What was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek tweet by JPMorgan Chase about how consumers sometimes make poor financial decisions quickly went awry Monday as critics and lawmakers seized on it as evidence the bank is tone-deaf and doesn’t care about its customers.
The bank on Monday tweeted using the hashtag #MondayMotivation in an apparent effort to tout the benefits of saving money. But the tweet played into stereotypes of millennials as frivolous spenders, playing off a popular meme to suggest that simply cutting unnecessary expenses is the answer to low checking account balances.
“You: why is my balance so low,” it read. “Bank account: make coffee at home. Bank account: eat the food that’s already in the fridge. Bank account: you don’t need a cab, it’s only three blocks. You: I guess we’ll never know. Bank account: seriously?”
The backlash on Twitter was both instantaneous and predictable.
I’m currently looking for a new bank. Glad this narrowed down my options and I can cross Chase off the list!
— tommy (@Chelstastico)
April 29, 2019
Unless you're willing to pay back that bailout money to all of us taxpayers directly, I'd stop calling the kettle black
— Gina Merrell (@gigisker)
April 29, 2019
(For the record, though JPMorgan accepted Troubled Asset Relief Program money during the financial crisis, it didn't actually need it, unlike some other megabanks at the time. It repaid the funds with interest several years ago.)
Thank you to
@Chase for giving credit unions across the country thousands of new members today.— Filthy Hippie (@droctopu5)
April 29, 2019
JPMorgan quickly deleted the tweet, replacing it with the similarly tongue-in-cheek tweet saying its motivation was to get better at #Mondaymotivation, but the damage was done.
Our
#MondayMotivation is to get better at#MondayMotivation tweets. Thanks for the feedback Twitter world.— Chase (@Chase)
April 29, 2019
By then, lawmakers, including Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had seized on the tweet.
.
@Chase : why aren’t customers saving money?
Taxpayers: we lost our jobs/homes/savings but gave you a $25b bailout
Workers: employers don’t pay living wages
Economists: rising costs + stagnant wages = 0 savings
Chase: guess we’ll never know
Everyone: seriously?
#MoneyMotivation pic.twitter.com/WcboMr5MCE — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren)
April 29, 2019
The tweet comes at a time when income inequality—and banks’ role in perpetuating it—is becoming a hot-button topic. JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon was
Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., who initially questioned Dimon on the topic at the hearing, used the tweet to press home the issue, arguing the bank just doesn’t get it.
Hey
@Chase , try paying your workers more. Families aren’t spending frivolously; they’re trying to pay rent.pic.twitter.com/XwQi2GisU5 — Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter)
April 29, 2019
It’s hardly
Chase has attempted to win over younger customers distrustful of its brand by launching a digital-only option called
