Wells Fargo took out full page ads in Sunday’s New York Times and Washington Post in the form of a letter entitled "The Value of Team Member Recognition" from CEO John Stumpf which blamed

deliberately misleading

media stories for the cancellation of employee recognition events:

These one-sided stories lead you to believe every employee recognition event is a junket, a boondoggle, a waste, or that it’s for highly-paid executives. Nonsense!

No, not every event--just those that involve luxury hotel resort getaways for mortgage brokers and some lucky folks in the insurance department. But Wells Fargo wants to make it seem like media meanies and cranky basement dwelling bloggers are responsible for Chris the teller not getting a birthday cake in the break room.

For many, it’s the only time in their lives that they’re publicly recognized and thanked for a job well done. This recognition energizes them. It inspires them.

The ad went on the say that the cancellation of those events hurts those Wells Fargo employees who are

most deserving of recognition

like tellers, personal bankers, operations clerks and credit analysts. But uh, none of them were on the guest list for twelve nights at the Wynn Resort or the three-day Mandalay Bay getaway. 

Instead those deserving employees can read the full page ad. Wells Fargo spokesperson Julia Tunis Bernard said:

This advertisement was a way to publicly acknowledge their accomplishments so that all of our stakeholders know how much we value their accomplishments.

The open rate in the New York Times for an ad of that size and type is $181,692.  That’s a lot of breakroom birthday cake. But only 25 rooms at the Wynn during a 12-night retreat.