Catch the new advertisements rolled out by Scudder Investments last weekend? The new ad recalls an earlier campaign used by Janus to communicate its stock research expertise. The only problem is that it contains a glaring error. In Scudder's case the ad asks, "How many lightning bolts does it take to change a stock market." In small print the ad explains the case of lightning destroying a chip plant that supplied a Swiss cell phone giant.

"In this case, just one," it reads. "Lightning destroyed the New Mexico chipmaker that supplied a Swiss cell phone giant. Practically overnight, stocks for the whole sector flip-flopped and the market leader became the market loser. It's another example of how global economies are connected. So your investment company had better be, too. And Scudder is."

Never heard of a Swiss cell phone giant? Neither had we. The problem with the research expertise shown in the ad is that the cell phone maker was Swedish, not Swiss. The ad is referring to a March 1990 fire at a Phillips Electronics plant in New Mexico that supplied chips for Ericsson cell phones. The fire did indeed disrupt Ericsson's plans; the company cut its production targets to 45 million to 50 million phones from up to 65 million after the fire.

Scudder officials have admitted that the ad should have read Swedish rather than Swiss. The error, Scudder officials told Reuters, cropped up somewhere between the first draft and the final production copy. Ironically, Scudder's corporate parent, Zurich, is a Swiss company.

We noticed the ad in last weekend's issue of Business Week. It also ran in papers such as the Wall Street Journal this week before the error was caught. The ad was created by Foote Cone and Belding and is part of a campaign rebranding the firm from Scudder Kemper to Scudder Investments.  

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