Drinks All Around for Vodka Promotion

How does a newly imported Vodka from Iceland get noticed in Los Angeles?

It gets into the right hands. Hands like those belonging to Ronald Reagan, Johnny Carson and Steven Spielberg, to name a few.

Last week, special gift packages of the Vodka -- complete with special vodka glasses, caviar, and even mother-of-pearl caviar spoons -- were delivered to the homes or offices of 23 of the Los Angeles area’s most familiar names. Behind this public relations campaign is Brown-Forman Corp., the U.S. marketing and distributing arm of Icy Vodka.

“We figured the best way to introduce Icy to the L.A. area was to have it seen among the right people in the right places,” said Melinda Lande, a spokeswoman for Icy. Each package cost the company about $30, she said.

Who was snubbed by Icy? Well, for one, Mayor Tom Bradley wasn’t on the list. But Merv Griffin, Michael Eisner and Zsa Zsa Gabor were. “Obviously, there are hundreds of people to choose from in L.A.,” said Lande. “We just made deliveries to people we felt entertain a lot.”

The Thighs Have It in Billboard Campaign

Try this one on for thighs.

Several hundred eye-catching billboards that show a pair of female thighs began to spring up last week along Los Angeles area freeways. The billboard ads are for a $79 rotating shower massage that is advertised to help remove cellulite.

The billboard ad, which shows a woman washing with the device, says, “Treat cellulite like dirt.”

Behind this campaign is Epi Products, a Santa Monica distributor of various health and beauty products. The $300,000 billboard campaign is being test-marketed in the Los Angeles area for two months, said Ed Gottlieb, director of marketing at Epi. Does he think the ads are provocative? “We’re counting on it,” he said.

But one of the area’s largest billboard company’s, Patrick Media Group, said it hasn’t had any complaints on the ad--yet. “The general public is not as easily shocked as it used to get by ads like this,” said Bruce Willoughby, vice president of sales at the billboard company.