Willis under fire over ‘Big Willie’ tower
Thousands of angry Americans have signed a petition against the tallest building in their country being renamed after British firm Willis Insurance.
The 442 metre high Sears Tower in Chicago is to be rebranded Willis Tower in a renaming ceremony next month.
Locals, however, have condemned the change with an online petition against the move attracting 33,000 signatures.
To vent their anger, they’ve scornfully labelled the tower “Big Willie”.
Willis CEO Joe Plumeri said he wishes he’d downplayed the company’s Britishness when he announced the name change.
“More information about the company’s lack of Britishness might have been good,” Plumeri said.
He added that he spends as much time running the company from its New York offices as he does from its London headquarters.
The Guardian newspaper, however, was nonplussed with Plumeri’s attempt to whitewash the Britishness out of Willis.
“Plumeri omitted to mention that the company was founded as a marine insurer in London’s Docklands in 1828,” wrote Guardian journalist Andrew Clerk.
“Or that it famously provided cover for the Belfast-built Titanic. Or that it went public on the London Stock Exchange in 1976.
“Or that the Duke of York opened its new global headquarters in Lime Street, smack in the middle of the Square Mile, last year.”
Willis believes that gaining the naming rights for Sears Tower is a simple solution to becoming a household name in the US.
It uses just three floors in the tower, or 3.7% of total occupancy.
Category: Insurance News, Willis News
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