JWT Touts Railroad

“Change is in the air” is the tagline of J. Walter Thompson’s new campaign for Norfolk Southern Railroad.

The print and television advertising effort targets investors skittish about the poor performance that has come to typify the nation’s railroads. The campaign is designed to persuade decision makers in the investment community—financial ana-lysts, institutional investors and brokers—that the Norfolk, Va.-based carrier’s 1998 acquisition of the ailing Conrail system is beginning to improve its bottom line.

“Norfolk Southern has been through a tough period of acquisition and retraction,” said Mark Simonton, a group account manager at the Atlanta agency.