In the walkway between Terminals 1 and 2 a cutout gymnast will be poised against the plate-glass windows, seeming to perform a balance beam act on the handrail.
Those terminals serve United, Northwest, and US Airways, among others.
The intent is a dramatic departure from standard billboards and banners that more typically appear in airports.
While the look of the creative effort has remained a mystery until Wednesday, initial reaction to the plans was mostly positive from industry observers, especially the selection of O'Hare as the launch site.
"You can't go to heaven without going through Chicago," quipped Larry Tolpin, president and chief creative officer for YPB&R, an Orlando-based ad agency specializing in travel. "Everyone will fly or walk through Chicago. It's definitely going to reach the business and leisure traveler, both local and international."
Christie Nordhielm, professor of marketing at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, called the site selection "extremely efficient."
"They'll catch the internationally focused Chicago residents, and they'll capture the Olympic committee when they walk through there," she said.
As well, the vast air travel gateway provides "an environment that has relevance--that is a destination," said Bobby Calder, professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "And you have the ability to do something that has excitement in terms of presentation of the ads. It can be dramatic there."
He was a little less certain about the tagline.
"As always with advertising slogans, these are things ad agencies love, but they often make more sense to the agency than they do as communications," he said. "`Stir the soul' is obviously an interesting line, it gets you thinking . . . but why exactly they use the word `soul' is a mystery to me."
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