by Jeff Sovern
Acting CFPB Director John Michael Mulvaney, known as "Mick," has been making a big deal about the fact that the name of the CFPB, or Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the Dodd-Frank Act is the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (or BCFP), even asking that the Associated Press change its stylebook accordingly. Some consumer advocates, including a commenter on our blog, Dennis Wall, have complained that this deemphasizes the word "consumer" in favor of emphasizing the word "bureau." Here is an excerpt from an Oklohman article by Ken Sweet:
"Doing that signals you want to take the emphasis away from serving consumers — which unfortunately is what Mulvaney's been doing in many ways — and put it on 'this is a bureaucracy'," [ Americans for Financial Reform executive director Lisa] Donner said.
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You couldn't find a better example of contrasting messaging here. One says 'we are here to help' while the other says 'we are the mighty and here to protect,'" said Kit Yarrow, a professor of psychology and an expert on corporate branding at Golden Gate University.
I actually don't care about this as much as some people, but I couldn't resist the snarky headline. I suppose someone could complain about that to the CFPB, but it looks like the complaint database is not going to be public anymore, so why should I care? More about that in a later post.
