Mural now part of BBDO Exec says its message is about "passion, creativity and heart"

George Tenne did some arm-twisting to convince BBDO/ChicagoPresident and CEO Tonise Paul that a graffiti art mural should go upon the well-tended walls of the agency's Wrigley Building offices--walls that Paul long ago made sure were tastefully painted andappropriately adorned with corporate artwork.

But Paul eventually relented, and 230 BBDO staffers will find outthe full significance of the brightly colored new wall painting onview in the agency lounge when they convene Friday for an annualmeeting to review the past year and look ahead to the next 12 months.

Paul says she finally fell for the mural proposal--something theagency had never tried before--because she liked the idea of having acolorful depiction of the agency's mission in a spot where it wouldbe readily visible throughout the year.

Long before the mural was painted by Chicago artists FelixMaldonado and Tyrue Jones in whirlwind 48-hour session last weekend,posters with BBDO's new annual meeting catch phrase--"Bring It"--were hung around the agency. The phrase occupies a dominant spot atthe center of one panel of the mural, which shows a giant boxing ringwith a huge gorilla in boxing trunks sitting in one corner beingattended to by his trainer.

Various figures are arrayed around the ring, including a monkeycarrying a box of light bulbs that he is tossing toward a varied castof animal characters (one resembles Bugs Bunny) seated outside thering. One BBDO executive hinted the light bulbs might be a symbol for"bright ideas," expected to be one of the themes of Paul's address toher staff at the annual meeting.

As for the overall message the mural conveys, Tenne, BBDO seniorvice president of creative administration, said it is about "passion,creativity and heart." Those sound very much like the right qualitiesfor a top-notch agency to embrace heartily.

But getting that message up in mural form didn't prove a snapafter Tenne got the green light to move forward. Unfamiliar with thecity's pool of graffiti artists, Tenne first turned to the ArtInstitute of Chicago, where he had little luck finding an appropriatecandidate. He then contacted a local design shop, The Art Bunch,which put him in touch with Maldonado, a graffiti artist and formeragency art director who worked at Grant/Jacoby for five years untilhe was laid off last spring.

Maldonado and his painting partner Jones, a former animationartist at the Walt Disney Co., met more than 15 years ago on thelocal graffiti art circuit. But Maldonado said he gave up doinggraffiti art on the run a while ago. "I was getting too old to goaround with a paint can trying to do a piece of graffiti art in atrain yard in two hours," said Maldonado.

Video ads at Sun-Times online

A new streaming video technology from New York-based KlipmartCorp. allows advertisers to show short commercials, such as movietrailers, on the Chicago Sun-Times online. The debut ad--a trailerfor the upcoming movie "O"--appears Friday on Roger Ebert's page atwww.suntimes.com/ ebert.

The newspaper first sells the online ad to an interested company,which then supplies Klipmart with the video to create the streamingvideo ad. Lions Gate Entertainment is the first advertiser using thenew Klipmart technology to appear on the Ebert home page.

Klipmart says its streaming video technology is cutting-edge,because it doesn't require the use or installation of a multimediaplayer. But the technology might not work on some Macintosh computerswith some versions of the Netscape browser, the company said.

E-mail: llazare@suntimes.com