Costa Mesa-based Casanova Pendrill Publicidad Inc. has once again teamed up with the United Nations Children’s Fund to promote the U.N.’s Tap project, which is trying to provide clean water to children around the world.
The project has raised more than $1 million to support Unicef water programs in developing countries.
Casanova worked with the program last year on a pro bono advertising campaign targeted to Hispanics.
Its New York office and volunteers handed out bottles of dirty water to build awareness.
The shop’s dirty water vending machine was featured on many morning TV shows, including “The Today Show.”
The campaign also garnered several advertising awards for the shop.
“We called it the gift that keeps on giving,” said Ingrid Otero-Smart, chief executive at Casanova, the Hispanic advertising unit of New York-based Interpublic Group of Cos.
The agency donated the work again and produced several TV spots, radio commercials, print ads and online work as part of the campaign.
The shop launched the campaign during last week’s World Water Week.
Casanova almost opted out of participating this year due to several late year account wins with clients including Switzerland’s Nestlé SA and Minneapolis-based General Mills Inc.
“We almost turned it down this year because we are so busy,” Otero-Smart said. “Pro bono is one of those things you want to do, but you need to find the time.”
Allergan, Fletcher Jones’ Ads
Newport Beach-based production company Lyon Studios has seen business pick up from a variety of clients.
The production shop had a busy quarter shooting commercials for Fletcher Jones Motorcars in Newport Beach and sales videos for Irvine-based Allergan Inc.
Lyon finished a new commercial campaign for Fletcher Jones.
The dealership has continued marketing through the downturn while other dealerships have cut back drastically on spending.
“We have been very busy with him, and the results are obviously working for them,” said Curt Lyon, president and creative director at Lyon.
The shop also finished work shooting some TV spots for Sterling BMW in Newport Beach.
And Lyon recently completed production on a sales video for Allergan, profiling the cosmetic drug company’s Costa Rica manufacturing plant, where it produces silicon breasts, lap bands and other products.
The video will be part of a sales kit provided to the Allergan sales force to show doctors the facility and remove any concerns about manufacturing in a foreign country.
The production company also is working on a new series of commercials for Carlsbad-based Jenny Craig Inc., part of Nestlé, and a series of TV spots for Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach for its upcoming otter habitat exhibit.
Parody as Flattery
Irvine-based Atlus U.S.A. Inc. is hoping to get some buzz for its latest game release by riffing on popular commercials.
The U.S. distributor and translator of Japanese video game maker Atlus Co. released a series of online videos to YouTube.com and other Web sites advertising its upcoming release, 3D Dot Game Heroes.
In one video, the company parodies New York-based Euro RSCG Worldwide Inc.’s “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign for Dos Equis beer.
In the TV and radio commercials for the beer, viewers are introduced to the “most interesting man in the world” by a narrator who lists off his many humorous traits, such as having a personality that is so magnetic that it prevents him from carrying credit cards. The commercials always end with the character telling viewers to “stay thirsty, my friends.”
The Atlus ad follows the same vein with outrageous claims about the main character, including having been knighted by a queen bee. At the end, the main character says, “stay retro, my friends.”
The action adventure game, developed by Japan’s Silicon Studio Corp., heavily parodies many retro video games of the past 20 years with its pixel art style, inside jokes and allusion to older video games.
The game is due out in May for the Japan-based Sony Corp.’s Playstation 3 video game system.
M Magazine’s Publisher
Newport Beach-based M Magazine, a quarterly real estate and lifestyle magazine, has added Jolie Adams to its staff as an associate publisher.
The publication launched last year as a marketing offshoot of Newport Beach-based luxury home brokerage McMonigle Group.
The magazine features high-end real estate in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Desert along with luxury lifestyle products and services.
Adams cofounded Riviera magazines, part of Los Angeles-based Modern Luxury Media LLC, in OC and San Diego. She also helped launch Pelican Hill Magazine for Newport Coast’s Pelican Hill Resort, run by Newport Beach’s Irvine Company.
