Hey Stop Laughing ...

[Professur]

What do you think of this crap?

Chicago's Sears Tower is renamed

No longer the Sears Tower - but will the new name catch on?

The Sears Tower in Chicago - one of the most famous skyscrapers in the world - is being renamed.

The 110-storey structure, which opened in 1973, is being rechristened the Willis Tower on Thursday.

London-based insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings has secured the naming rights as part of an agreement to lease space.

But the name change has angered some protesters, who have launched a website called www.itsthesearstower.com.


The Sears Tower is not just a Chicago landmark, it's a national landmark that's known around the world
Aaron Perlut
PR agency Elasticity


Tourists from around the world have visited the tower's gallery to see views of Chicago.

Chicago teacher Marianne Turk, 46, told the Associated Press news agency that she was firmly against the change, as she waited to go up.

"It's always going to be the Sears Tower. It's part of Chicago and I won't call it Willis Tower. In Chicago we hold fast," she said.

Chicago landmark

The Willis Tower will be introduced to Chicago by the city's mayor, Richard Daley, during a public renaming ceremony hosted by Willis Group Holdings.

The company is hopeful that the name change will catch on.

"Everybody knows that tower," chief executive Joe Plumeri said ahead of the ceremony.

"If we're good corporate citizens and do what we should, hopefully Willis and the tower and Chicago will all become synonymous."



Other well-known buildings have undergone name changes - New York City's Pan Am Building became the MetLife Building, and Chicago's Standard Oil Building is now the Aon Center.

But people have not always taken to them.

Public relations experts said it could take decades for the new name of the Chicago skyscraper to take its place in the public consciousness.

"The Sears Tower is not just a Chicago landmark, it's a national landmark that's known around the world," Aaron Perlut, a managing partner at St Louis-based PR agency Elasticity, told Reuters news agency.

"We see it on our TVs, in movies and magazines, so it is part of pop culture."

"Gaining public acceptance of renaming the Sears Tower will be extremely challenging. Even with a very long, integrated marketing campaign we could be looking at a 20-to-30-year period," he said.

The building's original tenant, Sears Roebuck and Co, moved out in 1992 but its sign stayed on.

A real estate investment group, American Landmark Properties of Skokie, Illinois, now owns the building.

source

 

[Gonz]

Naming rights. A great way to spend cash for no reason.

 

[Nixy]

It's like what Rogers did to the Skydome in Toronto...or what BMO did to the Round Up Centre here (that one isn't as well known but still)...they both still make me angry.

 

[Luis G]

It's just a skyscraper, no harm done, no major history changed, no injuries. It would be just as fine if they called it that damn thing

 

[MrBishop]

GL getting SL back posting on here.

Stay tunes for the Empire State Building renaming to the Freedom Tower Building...or the Michael Jackson Memorial Building --coming to a Facebook Petition near you!

 

[Inkara1]

I thought they were going to rename the Sears Tower a long time ago. Was it that they talked about it and it took this long to actually do it?

 

[Gonz]

As assinine as the whole naming rights thing is, WTF? If they are willing to shell out tens of millions of dollars to get their name on a building, or event, & pick up the tab in doing so, then I say God Bless America. I don't care what Tostitos says, it's still just the Fiesta Bowl.

 

[chcr]

tanstaafl.

 

[BeardofPants]

Big Willy. Won't catch on.