During the past few months we have been swamped with gadgets incorporating the euro symbol. All the major European banks have been distributing euro-inspired watches, clocks, calculators and even food items to their main clients and their employees to celebrate the birth of the new currency.
Facilities managers at the Paribas headquarters in London have had perhaps the most original idea. Since January a massive euro symbol has dominated the internal piazza where employees gather for breaks and to talk to colleagues in other departments. The flowerpots that adorn the atrium have been now been lined up in the shape of the new currency symbol.
"We like to call ourselves the euro bank so it is a good idea," says Stephen Goldman, corporate communications manager of the bank. "It is eye-catching and visitors remember it easily," says Jim Powell, a member of the facilities administration team.
When asked if it doesn't bother him to have the euro symbol in front of him even during his breaks, Powell replies: "No. because you see the whole image of the symbol only in the visitors' meeting rooms on the sixth floor; not when you are talking to someone else in the atrium."