UP Aims Campaign at Employees

The Union Pacific railroad takes a rare stab at advertising in an effort to reach its 48,000 em ployees and others who have a stake in the company.

Two spots from Bailey Lauerman, in Lincoln, Neb., broke earlier this month in 32 of the company’s biggest employee markets.

Union Pacific, headquartered in Omaha, Neb., has acquired 19 other railroad lines over the years, notably the Southern Pacific and the Chicago & Northwestern during the last de cade, and UP’s tradi tional culture has ad mittedly been fractured, said Bob Turner, the client’s senior vice president of corporate relations.

“It had never been a priority to bring everyone together under one culture,” Turner acknowledged.

Bailey Lauerman’s commercials are narrated by actor Sam Elliott, whose gra velly bar itone tells in one spot—shot againstthe mag nificent vistas of Moab, Utah—how the railroad is made up of “33,000 miles of timber and steel.”

The ads end with...