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WINNERS 1. Just before the year ended, Wieden & Kennedy nailed the Diet Coke account. The business of making ads for the largest-selling diet soda in the world is all the sweeter given that in 1998 W&K made a commercial for Diet Coke (on a project basis) that was trashed by Stuart Elliot, the influential columnist for The New York Times. "Dull, pointless commercials...made the thought of drinking Diet Coke...as appealing as downing a dose of ipecac," he wrote. 2. Gov. John Kitzhaber is shoring up his enviro credentials this week by expanding the Oregon salmon-restoration plan, which protects coastal coho and lower Columbia River steelhead. The new plan includes all salmon species in Oregon and holds state agencies accountable for protecting the fish. 3. She shaved her head, biked to work and was called a "Martian" by high-ranking city officials. City Auditor Barbara Clark, who has just retired, certainly marched to a different drummer, but we liked the beat. Her office produced revealing performance audits on subjects ranging from cell phones to sewer contracts. Clark's legacy lives on at www.ci.portland.or.us/auditor. At the Web site, you can access audits including the latest, Clark's eight annual report on city government performance. |
LOSERS 1. The roommate of alleged cop-killer Steven Dons seemed to suffer from guilt by association last week. Jeffery Harlan Moore was sentenced to 36 months in prison for growing marijuana, far longer than most first-time pot offenders are. 2. Old Town merchants scrambled to talk about the area's cleaner, gentler image in the wake of a shooting at a Chinese restaurant that injured three people attending a big private party Jan. 3. One of the shooting victims, Harry James Villa, III, was an associate of Lil Smurf, a notorious gang member who was killed in 1997. 3. Gretchen Plummer, co-owner of Johnny Sole, learned last week that her chic shops had been flooded with 100,000 gallons of water on Christmas night, which is also her birthday. Police say vandals broke into the abandoned Cornelius Hotel and set off the fifth-floor sprinkler system, sending water to the two shoe stores below. Save for a few pairs of Frye boots, the entire inventory was destroyed. Plummer hopes to reopen in two months.
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Willamette Week | originally
published January 6,
1998