Anonymous 'Save Michigan' teaser ads sponsored by Chemical Bank.

• Position: Marketing News - Chemical Bank Michigan - Brief article

The mysterious billboards and print ads started appearing in Michigan in the early summer. The advertisements contained only two words: "Save Michigan."

Since the state was suffering from an unusually harsh economic downturn, many viewers thought the signs were a call for public action.

About a week after the advertisements first appeared, a new set of ads repeated the message but added something new: an Internet address. Viewers who connected to the address, discovered that Chemical Bank (assets: $3.7 billion), Midland, Mich., was behind the teaser campaign.

"We wanted to change the conversation and to get people talking," says David B. Ramaker, the bank's president and CEO.

The object of the effort was to remind people that the bank was doing its part to help people financially in the communities that it serves.

The bank...