June 13, 2008

When Bank of America merged with MBNA back in 2006, they had a big internal event for bank executives. Two of them got up on stage and performed a remade version of U2’s hit single, “One.”

The song was rewritten to commemorate and celebrate the merger. You can read all the lyrics on page 2.

The duo — one guy singing and another guy on guitar — gave a pretty good performance. The singer, Ethan Chandler, a Manhattan banking center manager, is amazingly earnest and sincere. It’s pretty darn good, unless, of course, you’re a U2 fan, in which case you may equate it with musical murder.

The video has been viewed over 438,630 times at YouTube, so sorry if you’re one of them and you’ve seen it already. Here’s the video:

Go figure. A remake of a song about a bank merger sung by a bank executive. In a white shirt and tie. On about the dullest stage you can imagine. And it was viewed almost half a million times.

The party poopers over at Universal Music Publishing Group didn’t care for it. They promptly fired off a cease-and-desist to B of A, claiming copyright infringements. This is kind of surprising, since it’s obviously a gag, and meant for an internal audience only. UMPG’s legal maneuver must have failed though, since the video is still up.

You can read the New York Times story here.

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Previous related stories from The Financial Brand:

• Commerzbank blends brands following merger
• NASCAR Banking
• Absa’s wonderfully artistic and creative branding posters
• Case study: Fitzsimons Credit Union rebranding

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