Clothing Campaign Dresses Up as Film Promotion

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In Justin Timberlake’s latest starring role, he plays a denim-clad rebel from Tennessee who takes his girlfriend Birdie on a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style crime spree.

It’s a movie that doesn’t exist. Only the denim and the ad campaign are real.

The bogus film, titled “My Name Is William Rast,” will have film clips, movie posters and billboards to promote it. But William Rast isn’t a movie: It’s the brand name for a line of jeans, and the campaign is designed to capitalize on Timberlake’s celebrity. The movie posters will appear as magazine ads and the film clips will be released on the Internet.

The Rast campaign brings a fresh twist to product placement by putting the jeans in a fake movie starring a bankable lead actor who happens to be co-owner of the jeans company.

“With this campaign, our goal is to create major buzz around the name and the brand of William Rast,” said Colin Dyne, chief executive of People’s Liberation. “Fans of Justin and William Rast will be spreading the word.”

Timberlake owns 50 percent of the Rast brand in conjunction with People’s Liberation Inc., an L.A.-based clothing manufacturer. Timberlake co-directed, co-wrote and scored the Rast film clips.




Sweet Deal

The Los Angeles office of Dentsu Inc., the giant Japanese ad agency, won the account for American Licorice Co. and immediately produced a TV spot for Red Vines, the company’s best-known brand.

The Candy Karma campaign represents the first time Red Vines has used traditional advertising. In the spot, a man plants his last Red Vine and it grows into a phenomenal licorice extravaganza.

“Historically, American Licorice has placed more emphasis on trade marketing and promotions,” said Aaron Johnson, director of consumer marketing at the company. “This effort signals a shift in strategy more directly toward the consumer, who in the case of Red Vines already has strong emotional ties with the brand. This advertising does a great job of paying tribute to those emotional ties.”


Island Client

KSL Media in Encino and the L.A. office of M & C; Saatchi have teamed up to win the ad account for the Curacao Tourist Board.

The contract presents a challenge because U.S. tourists are more familiar with other Dutch-controlled Caribbean islands, such as Aruba and St. Martin. But the dual agencies plan to use print, TV and direct response to gain market share.

M & C; Saatchi has tourism experience from selling Australia and New Mexico, while KSL handles the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas and Buffalo Thunder Resort in Santa Fe, N.M.


Million-Dollar Reviews

A new study co-authored by a USC professor puts a dollar figure on the PR value of positive product reviews in the Wall Street Journal.

The study, conducted by Joseph Johnson at the University of Miami and Gerard Tellis at the USC Marshall School of Business, analyzed more than 400 companies whose products were reviewed in Walt Mossberg’s Personal Technology column.

Companies receiving good product reviews enjoyed stock gains of 10 percent on average in the five days after the review, while companies with poor reviews saw their stock sink 5 percent over the following five days. In dollar terms, companies receiving positive product reviews saw average gains of $500 million; those receiving bad reviews suffered average capitalization losses of $200 million.


Agencies & Accounts

The L.A. office of Wongdoody has produced five new TV spots featuring Pizza Knight, the armor-clad spokesman for Round Table Pizza. The ads will support Round Table’s claim that the chain makes a better pie for the right price. Boutique PR shop Bob Gold & Associates Inc. has signed Sorpresa, a new Spanish-language cable TV network. According to Gold, a cable veteran, Latino children have been underserved on TV. “Sorpresa fills an important niche focused entirely on Spanish-speaking children and the advertisers trying to reach them.” Ad agency 72andSunny has partnered with surfcentric clothier Quiksilver Inc. to launch a line for women. L.A.-based Pinnacle Advertising received two prestigious creative awards for the PointSmartClickSafe educational campaign created for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. Pinnacle took a Telly Award in the public service category and was honored at the Webby Awards in the family/parenting category. The campaign teaches parents and children how to avoid online predators. Miller Group, a Los Angeles-based ad firm, is the new agency for the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. The agency will produce TV spots, PR materials and online material. The L.A. office of event producer Jack Morton Worldwide Inc. has hired two new people. Luis Montero is the new managing director of the office. Julien Le Bas joins the agency as creative practice leader for L.A.


Staff reporter Joel Russell can be reached at

[email protected]

or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 237.

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