Travelers arriving at the Atlanta airport are now being greeted by giant posters promoting both “Hartsfield” and “Jackson,” the airport’s namesakes.
It’s part of a campaign to get people to use both names when mentioning the airport. The recently-added posters cover a large construction wall in the domestic terminal greeting area at the top of the escalators leading up from the people-mover train.
Former Atlanta Mayor William Hartsfield developed the airport in its earlier days, while former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson oversaw construction of the current terminal, completed in 1980.
Though Jackson’s name was added in 2003, some of his relatives and Atlanta city council members say too many people still refer to the airport simply as Hartsfield.
The council earlier this year passed a resolution asking managers at the city-owned airport to “monitor and notify necessary persons to determine reasons why when using the name of the Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the name, ‘Jackson’, is often omitted, not used or overlooked.”
The airport in June unveiled its action plan. It worked with branding consultant Jones Worley and Bigelow Advertising on a branding campaign with a tagline: “Two Men, One Vision.”
The posters include giant images of each man’s visage, along with a quote from each.
“Somehow, Atlanta always meets the challenge…. We have been doing it and will continue in the years to come,” reads the quote from Hartsfield.
“We stand not so much as a gateway to the South but as a gateway to a new time, a new era, a new beginning for the cities of our land,” reads the quote from Jackson.
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