Nokia upset by critical graffiti picture of CEO Kallasvuo

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Earlier this week mobile phone giant Nokia asked the Etera Mutual Pension Insurance Company to have a critical graffiti image of Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the President and CEO of Nokia Corporation, removed from the wall of an uninhabited building.
      The building in the Vallila district of Helsinki has been occupied by some young squatters.
      On Wednesday Etera sent a cleaning crew to Vallila, but somebody had already painted the silhouette image black.
     
The squatters have been staying at Etera’s building on Elimäenkatu 15 in Vallila since August, and during that time the walls have been covered by graffiti, tags, and various kinds of scribbles.
      The graffito item that particularly piqued Nokia consisted of a picture of Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and a text saying ”Kallasvuo sucks”.
      "A representative of Nokia called and asked us to have the picture removed", confirmed Property Manager Timo Gebhard from Etera.
      Communications Manager Eija-Riitta Huovinen from Nokia admits that an individual Nokia employee made an initiative in the matter.
      "Usually we are quite thick-skinned with respect to such incidents. There is room for all sorts of opinions in the world", Huovinen notes further.
     
However, Gebhard hopes that the squatters will not start scratching new unwanted graffiti on the walls of the building.
      "If they do, they will be thrown out of the house really fast, as we do not want unnecessary cleaning costs", Gebhard concluded.
      Nevertheless, some costs are likely to accrue, as a new text, saying "Kallasvuo: suck harder”, had appeared on top of the blacked-out Kallasvuo picture on Thursday.


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Helsingin Sanomat