Van Sant

Baltimore-based Gray Kirk/VanSant might lose its 19-year advertising relationship with Choice Hotels International Inc., an account which agency officials say represents one-fourth of its business. Choice Hotels, which has a new senior vice president of marketing, recently announced that it has hired a New York search firm to conduct an agency review for its $35 million to $40 million consumer advertising account. Roger L. Gray, Gray Kirk president and chief executive officer, said that although the agency, which has $110 million in annual billings, has been invited to participate in the review, he has not decided whether to do so. He plans to meet with Choice officials next week, then make a decision on whether to pursue the business.

The Baltimore advertising firm Gray, Kirk/VanSant has won a contract to represent Value Rent-A-Car, an account worth about $8 million in annual billings.Value will be the company's second largest client, behind Choice Hotels International. That account has annual billings of about $20 million.A subsidiary of Mitsubishi Motors, Value Rent-A-Car has offices in 49 resort locations around the country, with 35 sites in Florida alone."This is a big win for us," Roger Gray, president and chief executive officer of the advertising company, said in a prepared statement.

The pending merger of Gray Kirk & Evans and VanSant Dugdale, creating Baltimore's second-largest advertising agency, will give the resulting firm "greater depth, a more distinguished client roster and a lot of emphasis on the creative product," Gray Kirk Chief Executive Roger Gray said yesterday.The merger, which was reported Saturday in The Sun and is scheduled to be completed by July 1, will create Gray Kirk/VanSant, with annual billings approaching $80 million. It is the first consolidation in the Baltimore advertising community since Gray Kirk & Evans was formed in 1989 with the merger of Smith Burke & Azzam and Evans/McLaughlin.

The state's Board of Public Works is expected to approve a five-year, $35 million advertising contract today with Trahan, Burden & Charles to promote tourism and economic development in Maryland.One of the mid-Atlantic area's largest advertising and public relations agencies with more than 130 employees and annual billings of $142 million, Trahan scored highest among three firms that made proposals to state officials."We're absolutely thrilled to be selected as the apparent winner," said Robert Matz, president of the ad agency.

This was to be a time of celebration for Gray, Kirk/Van- Sant Advertising and Public Relations Inc., one of Baltimore's established advertising agencies. It just changed its name and moved into the city's trendy Tide Point development. But there is little time to celebrate. The agency recently lost its largest account, Choice Hotels International Inc., and was forced to lay off 13 of 68 employees. It missed the final cut for the Best Western International contract, which could have significantly softened the blow of the Choice loss - to a Baltimore firm run by a Gray Kirk alum, which only added to the insult.

Local radio single: Campbell Group, W. B. Doner & Co.Local radio campaign: Campbell GroupRegional/national radio: Eisner & Associates Inc.Regional/national campaign: Eisner & Associates Inc.Print/collateral: W. B. Doner & Co.Broadcast/electronic: Eisner & Associates Inc.Broadcast/electronic single entry or campaign: W. B. Doner & Co.Audiovisual: Eisner & Associates Inc.Product or sales presentation: SiquisPackaging: Eisner & Associates Inc.Point of purchase:...

One of the first swings of USF&G Corp.'s $75 million cost-cutting ax has fallen on its advertising budget, and two large local ad agencies are feeling the blow.VanSant Dugdale & Co., which has held the bulk of USF&G's reported $11 million advertising account for several decades, confirmed yesterday that its billings have been cut "significantly."And Richardson, Myers & Donofrio said the $3 million account for corporate public affairs and the annual USF&G Golf Classic it handled for the insurance company in New Orleans has been eliminated.

On January 12, 2004 Ervin Bernard Terwilliger, Jr., beloved companion of Nancy L. Van Sant; devoted father of Ervin J. Terwilliger; and loving grandfather of Ervin M. Terwilliger. A Funeral Service will be held at the family owned Evans Chapel of Memories - Parkville on Friday 10 AM. Interment New Cathedral Cemetery. Visiting Thursday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 PM.

The gaping holes torn into the lobby ceiling at the city-owned Hilton Baltimore last week by a torrential rainfall should be repaired by Wednesday, a hotel official said Tuesday. A heavy rain last Thursday evening — parts of the Baltimore area received nearly 2 1/2 inches between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. — caused an internal storm pipe system to fail, said Irene Van Sant, a project analysis director for the Baltimore Hotel Corp. A connection failed at the point where the building's vertical drain pipes join those that run horizontally above the lobby ceiling, she said.

When the American journalist asks T.E. Lawrence why he loves the desert in Lawrence of Arabia, the hero famously replies, "It's clean." That must be what made director Gus Van Sant traverse the anonymous sandscapes of his new film Gerry. After crafting off-Hollywood milestones like Drugstore Cowboy, Van Sant entered safe middlebrow respectability with Good Will Hunting, then wandered into bungled commercial inanities like a shot-for-shot color remake of Hitchcock's black-and-white classic Psycho (an art-school experiment at best)