Seasonal Adjustment
Century City Shopping Center & Marketplace’s billboard campaign has focused on the center being an open-air mall rather than enclosed. Several of its boards have an ad that reads “Room Temperature” with an electronic thermometer on which was displayed the outdoor temperature.
But have you noticed those thermometers have been turned off lately?
The mall’s owners have apparently cooled to the previous campaign, and are now converting to a new one designed by Fattal & Collins of Marina del Rey. It will run through December, nudging consumers to hit the stores. The new ads read: “Only (blank) sunsets left ’til Christmas.”
“When it’s 59 degrees, that’s not a seller in L.A. Maybe in New York it would be, but here, it’s got to be 72 to 75 degrees, maybe 65 at least, to be a draw,” said Lisa Smith Frost, the mall’s marketing manager.
Holiday Junket
Beverly Hills is renowned for its excess, of course, and the city’s Chamber of Commerce plans to keep that tradition intact by offering the ultimate Christmas press junket.
On Dec. 2, a group of journalists and public relations professionals have been invited to join Mayor Les Bronte for a limousine tour of Beverly Hills merchants’ display windows.
The purpose? To serve as judges for the annual window decorating contest.
“We thought media people would be perfect to act as judges,” said Sheryl Turner, who is arranging the grand tour. “They have an unprejudiced eye for window decorations.”
The jolly news hounds will include representatives from “213” magazine, the Beverly Hills Chronicle, and the Beverly Hills Courier, said Turner.
To help lubricate the group’s investigative talents, Turner has arranged for them to reconnoiter at Chasen’s for a “working meeting” over dinner.
Welcome Relief
Fox Sports West is clearly feeling the effects of the National Basketball Association players’ lockout, because Lakers games generate hefty ratings and ad revenues. But the station got an unexpected boost.
The Nov. 7 broadcast of the game between the UCLA Bruins and Oregon State Beavers received the highest ratings ever for a college football game shown on Fox Sports Net. About 4.5 percent of all homes in Los Angeles with televisions tuned in.
Lakers games, by comparison, typically are seen by between 5 percent and 7 percent of L.A. TV households.
“It was almost up to a Lakers rating,” said Steve Webster, spokesman for Fox Sports West. “It’s really unprecedented ratings for a college game.”
Riordan’s Other Airport Plan
Proponents of a commercial airport at El Toro in Orange County appear to have added a big political name to their roster of supporters: Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.
Riordan has scheduled a Dec. 7 speech at the Irvine Hyatt Regency before the pro-airport Citizens for Jobs and the Economy. His speech will be about the need for increased commercial aviation capacity in Southern California and is expected to include an endorsement of the El Toro airport.
But wouldn’t a new airport there throw cold water on Riordan’s dream of an $8 billion to $12 billion expansion of LAX? Apparently not.
“We don’t view El Toro as competition at all,” said Tom Winfrey, a spokesman for LAX. “We’re not designing this airport to handle all the future growth.”
