Jenifer Jurden and her comic pal draw on their corporate experience to make the business world–and our world–better places.
Look out Ziggy. Step aside Dilbert. Here comes Jurdy.
The little green being from another world hasn’t hit the Sunday comics yet, but Jurdy and alter-ego Jenifer Jurden are aiming for the top.
The single-panel cartoon, as well as a green version, appears in a number of publications locally and abroad, and the website Autism Speaks features Jurdy e-greetings.
“We’re pretty close to getting syndicated,” Jurden says. “I’d like to get Jurdy licensed and offer merchandise and cartoons. My dream is to have a Jurdy World, a perfect world. It would be a theme park and a state of mind.”
For now, the pair is serving a dose of humor to the buttoned-down corporate world. Jurden, daughter of legendary News Journal political cartoonist Jack Jurden, combines her artistic talent with experience at the former MBNA to take Jurdy to new heights—such as the 11th floor of WSFS headquarters in Wilmington.
That’s where the dynamic duo helps run an internal idea-generating campaign for the bank. Jurdy appears throughout the bank’s offices via the Intranet, voicemail blasts, Post-It notes, notepads and counter cards that encourage employees to share ideas. The program has been so successful, the bank had to shift an associate’s responsibilities to field ideas full time. WSFS plans to renew the program in 2009.
“It keeps the campaign front and center in a fun way, without it being jammed down your throat,” says Stephanie Arnold, the bank’s vice president of marketing.
Jurden says a similar program helped one of her clients save $30,000 over a 50-day period. The cartoon can also be used to help a company boost employee morale.
“So much of what is wrong with corporate America is not being able to laugh about it,” Jurden says. “Jurdy can be a positive force between the corporate walls.”
—Drew Ostroski
