Trying to Add Some Fizz
For anyone who hasn’t had enough hype about supermodels, now comes PepsiCo’s just-published annual report.
It contains six photos--including a cover shot--of supermodel and Pepsi spokeswoman Cindy Crawford, who is touted as “a typical investor” in the soft drink company.
Crawford is seen standing amid various charts and graphs on such unglamorous subjects as Pepsi income from continuing operations and its snack foods market share.
In a stretch, Pepsi in the report rationalizes using pictures of Crawford as follows: “To humanize the facts, figures and financial data of our annual report, we decided to aim it at a real-live person--a typical investor-next-door. We chose Cindy Crawford.”
Sprinkled through Pepsi Chief Executive Wayne Calloway’s stockholder message are such phrases as “as I was telling Cindy” and “as I pointed out to Cindy.”
He’s a Sit-Down Guy
People at entertainment conglomerate MCA Inc. are still trying to figure out where new majority owner Edgar Bronfman Jr. stands.
If family history is any indication, they might want to ask where he sits.
When his Seagram Co. agreed to buy control of MCA this month, Bronfman declared that he was buying “one of six major seats at the table” amid speculation that he will be a very hands-on owner.
According to the “Executive’s Book of Quotations” by Julia Vitullo-Martin and J. Robert Mostkin, Bronfman’s grandfather, the late Seagram founder Samuel Bronfman, was once asked by a young aide to move from the middle of a table to the head of it for a meeting.
His reply: “Wherever I sit is the head of the table.”
No Real Scandals Here
It’s obviously not as exciting as reading one of its tabloids, but a recent report to the Securities and Exchange Commission by American Media Inc. (formerly Enquirer/Star Group) has a few nuggets for those who care about the less racy aspects of the company’s National Enquirer and Star publications.
Despite such high-profile scandals as the O.J. Simpson murder trial, single-copy unit sales for the National Enquirer fell 9.7% for the nine months ended Dec. 26, with its sister publication, the Star, seeing its single-copy unit sales dropping 6.2%.
All the news isn’t bad. Both publications reported stronger advertising revenue, with the Enquirer’s up $307,000 and the Star’s rising $649,000 for the period.
Briefly. . .
Nixon in Cyberspace: A World Wide Web site for the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace began last week, although visitors were greeted with “The site is under construction.” . . . Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer David Colden notes that the name Iacocca could stand for “I Am Co-Owner of Chrysler Corp. of America.” . . . Maybe nobody noticed the team is moving: The dinner chairwoman for a Century Plaza benefit last week for the American Air Museum in England was Los Angeles Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, according to an event notice.
