NEW YORK – Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond brokerage that lost 658 employees in the attack on the World Trade Center, is telling its wrenching story in a national advertising campaign that started this week.
"We wanted to let the world know that we're here, that we've survived and that we're rebuilding these businesses," said Amy Nauiokas, director of global marketing for Cantor Fitzgerald and its publicly traded subsidiary, eSpeed. "We are so proud of everything that we've done as a firm over these last nine months."
Nauiokas said the ad is one of three print ads and nine television spots released this week.
In one TV commercial Mike Morroni describes arriving at work late and seeing a huge gash in the north tower of the trade center.
"I just remember looking up and just seeing that big hole and just thinking to myself, that's our floor," he said. "I think for me it was getting back to work. That's the one thing that was keeping our minds off things and making us go on."
Nauiokas said the ad campaign is "our opportunity to tell our story. ... We think it's an incredibly important story and an incredibly important message that only we can tell."
She said the ads demonstrate "how the events of 9/11 have impacted each of these employees and what they are doing now to show their courage, their resilience and their support for the families that were left behind."
The international bond brokerage firm had offices on the 101st, 103rd, 104th and 105th floors of the north tower and lost two-thirds of its nearly 1,000 employees in the attack — more than any other company.
Its surviving staff moved into a midtown office building in March.
Many New Yorkers who did not work in finance were not familiar with Cantor Fitzgerald before tragedy forced it into the headlines. Nauiokas said Cantor and eSpeed had planned to launch their first major ad campaign on Sept. 17. That campaign was canceled.
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