Janus Capital has unveiled a new advertising campaign that emphasizes fund performance and investor commitment. The ads come as the firm is under attack from the SEC and state officials for allowing market-timers improper access to its funds. The ads, though, do not mention the scandals.

The print ad that ran in the Sunday New York Times boldy declared "Janus is delivering. Pushing hard for performance. Offering more investment choices." It also asserted "All of them managed with the intensive, disciplined, hands-on approach investors expect from Janus. Janus is working to earn every investor’s confidence. Every step of the way."

San Francisco-based Jeff Iorillo, an independent creative director and formerly at Foote, Cone and Belding, created the ad, which is dominated by large bold type and feet ascending a stairway. Iorillo's past work includes projects for Janus, WebTV, Avaya Communications and Levi's.

The print ad will also run in USA TODAY and British, European and Asian editions of the Financial Times. Television ads will follow starting on April 8th, running in three series from April 8th to June 13th on cable channels and during "high-profile" shows on network channels from April 8th to April 21st, said Janus spokesman Blair Johnson.

To stress performance, the company added "value oriented and risk-managed products" last year, including the Janus Risk-Managed Stock Fund introduced in February 2003. Besides offering more products, Janus plans on "delivering strong long-term performance across all products," Johnson said.

A Friday Wall Street Journal article challenged the legitimacy of company's performance-focused ad campaign. Specifically, the article reported that analysts consider hiring more tenured managers an important issue for Janus. The average tenure of portfolio managers at Janus is 4.3 years, the WSJ reported, citing Morningstar data. Johnson countered that the estimate was off by at least one year and that Janus was looking into the data.

Morningstar states on its website: manager tenure is the "number of years that the current manager has been the portfolio manager of the fund. For funds with more than one manager, the average tenure is shown." 

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