FINRA Launches National Ad Campaign Promoting BrokerCheck

Spots Underscore the Ease and Importance of Checking Before You Invest

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today launched a national ad campaign promoting BrokerCheck (brokercheck.finra.org), FINRA's free online tool that allows investors to access information about every broker's employment history, certifications and licenses, as well as regulatory actions, violations or complaints made against them.

The ads, created by Ogilvy & Mather, feature humorous examples of people taking action without conducting any background research, including: 

• a bride surprised by her organist's song choice;
• a man too late in reading the listed side effects of the medication he has taken; and
• a truck driver blissfully ignorant of a road's clearance restrictions.

Viewers are urged not to make the same type of leap-before-you-look mistakes when choosing a broker—they should use BrokerCheck.

The 15-second spots will run for five weeks on cable channels, including CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, MSNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, ESPN, Discovery, The History Channel and HGTV. A print ad will run in The Wall Street Journal tomorrow. The campaign will run digitally on relevant sites that include Bloomberg, CNBC, Fortune, Reuters, TubeMogul, the Undertone Network and Wall Street Journal, and search engines Google, Bing/Yahoo and YouTube.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FINRA, Richard G. Ketchum, said, "BrokerCheck is a key component to FINRA's ongoing efforts to help investors make informed choices about brokers and brokerage firms. People immediately go online to check out a new restaurant where they might spend $25 for a meal, but don't think to use BrokerCheck when they're handing over $2,500—or $25,000 of their life's savings or even more—to an investment professional to invest. That has to change, and we hope this campaign will help."

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services. FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business – from registering and educating all industry participants to examining securities firms, writing rules, enforcing those rules and the federal securities laws, and informing and educating the investing public. In addition, FINRA provides surveillance and other regulatory services for equities and options markets, as well as trade reporting and other industry utilities. FINRA also administers the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and firms. For more information, please visit www.finra.org.