Archive for May 7th, 2007

Last month, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” an Emmy award winning reality show on ABC, needed a bunch of hard hats to film an episode and asked Mine Safety Appliances Co., the O’Hara-based manufacturer of mining and safety products for help.

“We donated 500 hard hats, 250 white and 250 yellow,” said spokesman Mark Deasy. The MSA logo was prominently displayed on the hats. The show is scheduled to air in this month.

Del Monte Foods Co., whose pet food and Star-Kist tuna businesses are managed on the North Shore, said MasterCard wanted cans of organic Del Monte tomato sauce to place on a supermarket checkout counter in an TV commercial. “It’s a creative way to generate awareness of our brands,” said spokeswoman Michelle Faist. The company fields “at least one or two calls” a month from producers, she said.

All types of Pittsburgh companies are jumping on the bandwagon, placing or supplying their products on TV shows and in movies. The practice is “popular and growing,” said Petra Arbutina, executive vice president of contact strategy integration at Blattner Brunner, a Downtown advertising agency. “We’re seeing more and more of it. … Marketers are thinking of creative ways to reach their customers and potential customers, and one way is to actually become part of the content.”

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