Soft Sell

Bloomingdale’s, the world famous department store that has made an art of creative promotion, will help Hollywood sell its film “product” next spring at Oscar time with a seven-week “Salute to Hollywood.”

The campaign will kick off at the NYC flagship store April 5 with a black-tie party to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research, chaired by Elizabeth Taylor. Then it’s on to Bloomies’ 16 stores around the country, where plans call for clips of Oscar-nominated films to be incorporated into visual presentations--and where local Bloomies hope to lure Oscar nominees who are in town on promo tours.

The studios are cooperating, said the Bloomie marketing/publicity director, Terry Schaffer: “We plan to show the influence motion pictures have on American life, including fashion and life style. And it should help (film) rentals and bring in audiences.”