Evidence of a total commitment to boosting staff morale or of agency staff's complete self-obsession?
Hill & Knowlton staged a party last week to unveil the first batch of its 'staff portraits' - part of an ongoing plan to capture every one of its 400 London employees in artistic form. The first 100 pictures have filled most of the agency's Red Lion Square HQ's meeting rooms and foyer.
'It's a way of filling blank spaces with images of our best asset - our people,' says marketing executive Kate Sinclair.
Since the staff list is being worked through in alphabetical order, there have yet to be tantrums from the most senior figures in the agency, chairman David McLaren and joint CEOs Marie-Louise Windeler and Andy Laurence.
So far, only A to G have been immortalised in glorious technicolour.
H&K director Claire Foster is one of the first rendered vivid in the stylish interior recently imposed on the agency's Holborn base. 'Most of those painted are very pleased with them,' Sinclair says.
Magnanimous to the end, the agency has agreed that any staff member leaving can take their picture with them, while any new recruit jumps to the top of the list to sit for the 35 young artists hired to doodle away at parent company WPP's expense.
