Recently in DiMeo & Co./Chicago Category

Veteran ad man Bernie DiMeo of DiMeo & Co./Chicago doesn't like to lose a piece of business. But that is what has happened. Turano Baking Co. has parted ways with DiMeo, ending a nine-year relationship.

After an agency review in which DiMeo participated, Turano has selected the Jacobs Agency/Chicago as its new agency of record. Jourdan Huys an assistant account executive at Jacobs, said Turano's new agency will develop a comprehensive marketing campaign for the local baking company over the next several months. The new campaign will help build brand awareness among Chicago area consumers, as well as interested trade audiences. DiMeo told us he hated to lose the business, but a change in top management at the baking concern apparently prompted the agency review and the subsequent selection of Jacobs.

Bernie's found some new business. The times, as we all know, ain't what they were in the Chicago ad industry. Still, stalwart ad man Bernie Dimeo of DiMeo & Co./Chicago has found a piece of new business in downstate Carbondale, of all places. DiMeo & Co. has been awarded a five-year contract to provide marketing and public relations services for Southern Illinois University/Carbondale's Department of Event Services, perhaps best known for its Southern Lights Entertainment performance series.

Southern Lights Entertainment presents approximately 10 to 20 performances a year featuring artists such as Lily Tomlin, Crystal Gayle, B.B. King and others. "As a proud alum of SIU, I'm thrilled to be returning to campus for the first time in . . .well a lot of years," said DiMeo. It's also good to know the alma mater is good for some new business as well as a degree, right Bernie?

Advertising vets like Bernie DiMeo of DiMeo & Co./Chicago have seen a lot over time, and even DiMeo tells us things are pretty bad now in the ad business. But thankfully, DiMeo still has Turano Baking Co. as a client, and his agency has just completed a fun outdoor and radio campaign for the nearly 50-year-old local bread company.

The tagline is "Chicago's bread," and on new billboards now going up, we see loaves of bread that have cleverly been inserted into familiar iconic settings around the city. In one ad, a loaf of bread has taken the shape of the Bean sculpture in Millennium Park, while in another, loaves of bread have replaced the columns surrounding Soldier Field.
Radio spots stress how much a part of the Chicago landscape Turano has become while turning out fresh bread every day for almost half a century. Simple, fun, believable advertising.