WASHINGTON – CUNA continues to get positive feedback from its “Inside the Beltway” awareness efforts and from its national branding campaign under the logo and slogan, “America's Credit Unions: Where People Are Worth More than Money,” according to a CUNA statement. Among specific projects, CUNA said it has been working with NAFCU to run an ongoing series of print ads in publications such as Roll Call, National Journal's Congress Daily and Congressional Quarterly's Daily Monitor “emphasizing that 87 million Americans love their credit unions and that credit unions are fighting for their members every day.” The ads, said CUNA, explain that credit unions differ from banks as not-for-profit, member-owned cooperatives and cite the feature about CUs returning earnings to members in the form of better rates and lower fees. “Similar ads appeared in Washington Metro subway stations near Capitol Hill and, leading up to the House Ways and Means Committee hearing last November,” said CUNA noting “we expanded our efforts to include radio ads, also running in the Washington market with the primary goal of reaching members of Congress, their staff, and other influential policy makers.” At times, said CUNA, it runs “sharper edged ads that point out record bank profits and note that to the extent small banks have lost market share, they've lost it to the big mega-banks (not credit unions).” The feedback “received from the Hill to these messages both anecdotally and in focus groups has been very positive,” the statement continued. “They've been noticed and their message has resonated with folks on the Hill. Given the banks' stepped up attacks, especially since Harris Simmons became ABA chairman, we felt this has been the best use of available resources for raising awareness.” “And we've been able to do this in a sustained manner-which is critical to any campaign” to take hold. All of the ads have been available to leagues and CUs as a resource. In the meantime, “the National Brand Campaign ads that CUNA introduced in 2000 continue to be available to leagues and credit unions. More than half of the leagues have employed those ads in their awareness raising efforts in recent years,” concluded CUNA. [email protected]