Mye Goodye Cosynes, Sorry, but I could not help but to send this one to the list. I'm here, I'm your man!... Way to go!!!... Please tell Uncle Buzz I'm here, ready and waiting!. Mars is fine too!. I've already packed my passport, toothbrush, laptop, and winter woollies!. Oy!!!. Come back here!!!. Don't leave meee behiiiiiiind!!!. Who else is coming with, how about you Aunty Lois ???..................................................... >>> >>> >>> 25 August 2000 SMOKERS ONLY' FOR SPACE FLIGHT PRIZE By Tony Koenderman Cigarette companies dig deep for new ways of promoting themselves. Fancy a ticket aboard the first civilian trip into space? This - or a R500 000 cash alternative - is the prize in a huge competition being run by Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes through to the end of September. But you probably won't be able to claim your prize until 2003, the target date for the journey. Tickets are being sold by an American company, Space Adventures, which is associated with former astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The prize includes an astronaut-developed training programme before lift-off. To deflect criticism that Stuyvesant is inducing young people to take up smoking, the competition is open only to smokers over 18. Cigarette companies have been fuelling a burst of marketing creativity with ever more ambitious promotions, sponsorships and below-the-line activities designed to achieve maximum impact in the weeks remaining before the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act comes into effect. Already passed into law but awaiting regulatory implementation, it imposes a blanket ban on all forms of tobacco advertising. But cigarette companies will still be able to build relationships with customers by marketing direct to smokers. Database building is clearly the objective of this competition, as entry forms require detailed information on the participant's address, phone numbers, e-mail, work status, regular brand smoked (even if it's not Stuyvesant) and pack size preference. Entrants are asked how many cigarettes they smoke a day and the name of the store where they usually buy them. Data captured during the promotion will be used to guide marketing strategy for Peter Stuyvesant and will also be shared among other brands in the British American Tobacco stable (including former Rembrandt brands). The project is split three ways, between O&M Rightford (cinema, radio and interactive), Tequila (below-the-line, print, outdoor, retail and in-store) and Marcus Brewster Publicity (handling the R250 000 public relations contract, one of the biggest PR projects ever awarded in SA). There is, says Tequila MD Mignon Botes, "a trend for marketers to work with specialists who can get the job done rather than to be blindly loyal to one agency". The seven-week campaign will be enormous. A cinema commercial will be flighted before every movie screening during September on 246 screens around the country. Three radio spots have been recorded. Ogilvy Interactive has created a Website. Billboards have been posted at 80 sites, including six spectaculars. Postcards have been produced with a heat-sensitive strip which reveals a hidden message when activated by a fingerprint. In addition to the main prize there will be 100 000 small prizes, including palm tops, cigarette lighters, VIP passes to Peter Stuyvesant "Space Parties" at big-city nightclubs, and preview tickets to a Clint Eastwood movie, Space Cowboys. Stuyvesant has already created the Peter Stuyvesant Music Spectaculars, a series of concert tours by international superstars. Benson & Hedges has been progressively taking ownership of the ampersand in its name, and is now at the point where it has billboards proclaiming nothing more than "&" in its distinctive typeface. But it's doubtful whether these activities will provide an escape from the restrictions of the Act, which bans symbols or messages "designed" to promote smoking and includes "any part of" a product name. http://www.space-unlimited.com/ >>> >>> >>> Yours Sincerely, Sir Ken Markham, K.C.B., (95). [A Phenomenal Researcher In The Mists Of Time] [Genealogist Extra-Ordinaire]