Just Watch, Baby
Al Davis’ recent announcement that he is moving his Raiders professional football team from Los Angeles to Oakland--which came on top of Georgia Frontiere’s move of her Rams from Anaheim to St. Louis--isn’t throwing some people in the Southland for a loss.
Indeed, Paul Bloomfield and Michael Townsend are trying to exploit it with a “No Rams. . .No Raiders. . .No Problem” ad campaign.
The two men, partners in All Star Satellite in Orange, are targeting disillusioned NFL fans who want to fill any void left by picking up more games on television through the company’s satellite dish systems. Townsend said calls have picked up from 60 a day to 95.
A key part of the campaign is to note that with no more professional football teams, the NFL’s blackout rule is now moot in Los Angeles. The rule prevents people within 75 miles of a team’s home city from seeing home games on TV that didn’t sell out 72 hours in advance. In the past, Townsend said, satellite customers had to settle for a San Diego Chargers game whenever the Raiders played at home.
Now, he said, they can get all Raiders and Rams games, even home games, though he admits he doesn’t know whether people in Southern California will still be interested in the two teams.
The Fur Is Flying
A cat fight has broken out between Kal Kan Foods, maker of Sheeba cat food, and Nestle Food Co., maker of rival Fancy Feast, over some ad claims.
Nestle took its beef to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus regarding three ad claims Kal Kan was making about Sheeba, including that “seven out of 10 cats” prefer its brand to Nestle’s.
Nestle complained that its taste tests proved otherwise, and that the Fancy Feast Kal Kan tested its brand against “was not the best choice for comparison.” Separately, Nestle challenged a Kal Kan claim that Sheeba is much lower in fat.
The bureau found that Kal Kan substantiated the taste claims, although Kal Kan agreed to better support its fat claims in future ads.
Sign of the Times
In yet another corporate spat, Glendale Federal Bank has taken its efforts to tweak rival Bank of America to new heights, so to speak, in Westwood.
Glendale Federal in its latest ads specifically goes after customers of the state’s three largest banks--namely B of A, First Interstate Bank and Wells Fargo Bank.
As part of that effort, Glendale Federal has a “No B of A” billboard perched atop a building at Kinross Avenue and Westwood Boulevard where B of A has a group of automated teller machines. The sign is a red circle with slash running through it, the words “B of A” right in the center.
Does it bother B of A?
Spokesman Charles Coleman said that as the state’s largest bank, “we’re not surprised that other banks would be undertaking these kinds of campaigns.” Coleman added that B of A’s market share keeps growing, proving that “these kinds of campaigns don’t discourage customers from doing business with us.”