Destruction of a Memphis Icon |
Piece by piece, Memphis loses and Icon |
| Ordinarily the "Probably Causes" section at least attempts to lean towards the amusing side of things. However, the Regions takeover of Memphis banking icon, Union Planters, has been somewhat sad. Other than the whole "your not fooling anyone" air about this, there really hasn't been anything amusing about it. In the span of 18 months, Memphis has ceased to be home for two rather large regional banks, NBC and UPNB. In Suntrust takeover of NBC, the new guys came to town, changed all the signs in a day and basically that was it. With the Regions / Morgan Keegan / UPNB merger however, things were a little more... well... messy. Not only did Regions try to "fool" everyone with a bunch of those cheap plastic banners they put over the new signs while they painted everything, the marketing materials they sent out systematically threw new logos into the mail cart while they though nobody was looking. So, instead of just sitting back and watching this whole thing go down like a Baptist Hospital, I've decided to just passively archive the entire process. Below is a chronological photo display of what I've observed. I call it "The Destruction of a Memphis Icon". Enjoy. |
 before |
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| The Memphis skyline. while UP never actually occupied any office space in the 100 North Main building downtown, they always wanted their name on the tallest building in town. Pretty much any photo of the Memphis skyline you see has the UP logo on it as a result. |
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| the "we're not fooling anybody" stage |
 first, "covers" started showing up |
some covers fit better than others  |
 other covers hardly tried at all |
hmm, that's not suspicious at all  |
 mysterious "blank" sign |
| the actual changeover phase |
 one day this came in the mail |
the ATM's go the memo right away  |
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 That year, the tennis tourney logo looked like a NASCAR. Seriously, count all the crap going on here. The radio ads went like this. "The Regions, Morgan-Keegan Championships for the Cellular South Cup benefiting St Jude Children's Research Hospital is presented by (gasp for more air) Kroger, Keebler and your local Pepsi-Cola bottler." |
Below is the official letter all customers received informing them of the merger. If you do not have the patience to read it, let me sum. Dear Complete Tool Bag, I just sold a Memphis icon for a barge load of money and will no longer be accountable for crunking up all your accounts. Instead, some dood in the ATL will be doing that instead. Thanks for all the support. I'll be sure to wave at you from my yacht on Pickwick. It's big enough that you can see it from space on a clear night you know. Pease Out, J "waaaay" Moore "than you" |
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| the aftermath |
 ta-da! new bank, new logo... sort of. |
you read from left to right you know  |
 i was really glad they kept the cotton part of the logo |
 The final blow. This really did make me sort of sad for some reason. The Memphis skyline just doesn't look right without it's UP sign. Wonder how long it will take the local TV stations to update their backdrops? Furthermore, why didn't somebody think to try and sell the letters? If the G from Goldsmiths sold for $5,000, the UP had to be worth something. |
| So to sum.... BEFORE |
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| and AFTER |
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rvining     - 2/3/2006 11:50:49 PMCheck out this new 'essay' i've been working on. it is about the destruction of a Memphis icon - Union Planters |
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loh1974 - 2/4/2006 12:24:12 PM who is going to win the Superbowl and who will have the best commercial? |
PHonda  - 2/4/2006 11:32:26 PMFor this Superbowl I sees that Ford is making fields for game now. Do they retreat on car production? Bow to our Toyota! HA HA HA! |
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