Yes, we financed the original Vermont hippie.

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The 103-year-old Chittenden Bank in Burlington, Vt., recently launched a print campaign designed to recast the venerable institution as a "gutsy bank" that's willing to take a chance on imaginative Vermont business ventures.

The ads began appearing this spring in Vermont business publications.

The bank, which has 50 offices and assets of $3 billion, was starting to appear stodgy, according to the agency, KSV of Burlington, Vt. The agency says it took "cultural capital" from the bank's unique clients to create a story that had its origins with the Vermont myth of the "entrepreneur maverick."