Saturday, February 2, 2008

Zippy goes Super Bowl while P.R. meets Oprah

And a good Saturday morning to us all ....

As you enjoy the Super Bowl tomorrow .. keep you eyes open for Zippy, or at least Zippy's head zoo-keeper, Dr. Luis Proenza. The U of A has purchased two regional TV spots in the big game. Here's the first one if you'd like a sneak preview. Click here.

The second spot features two former UA players -- Domenik Hixon and Chase Blackburn -- who play for the NY Giants. The big-game strategy isn't unusual for the U of A, which has purchased air time on the Super Bowl in previous years.

Down the road, local artist P.R. Miller will also be making a big TV splash as it looks like he'll be on Oprah. P.R. (which he always jokes stands for "public relations") tells me that he didn't even know who Oprah was when he was first approached. "I don't have time to watch TV," he told me.

Turns out her producers love what he's been able to do as recycling royalty. So Oprah had her people call P.R.'s people (which means they called P.R. directly) to get the ball rolling and as part of the project, P.R. will be able to market a book that is being written about him. The book is nearing completion and should be quite the tale.

Miller tells me that the book doesn't have a title yet but it'll probably contain "Grizzled Wizzard" in some fashion since that's his nickname.

I only wish I'd have approached Miller about writing his life story a few years ago because he's a fascinating guy. I only hope that this new book is published on recycled paper or at least has a cover that looks like a blug bag :)

These days, P.R. continues to be the Artisan in Residence at Stan Hywet. He told me that he has art students from Firestone High School making bugs for an upcoming exhibit at the hall. Look for him if you're there ..

By the way, P.R. may be the last man in Akron not to have an e-mail address. If he doesn't know who Oprah is, it's probably not surprising that he's never been on-line either. And after all, no one's figured out how to recycle e-mail yet

3 comments:

Ben said...

I wonder how much Akron U is paying for these spots.......is this money well spent?

Anonymous said...

iirc, the Beacon covered UA's spots a few years ago, including cost for the regional ad, but I don't remember the details.

I'd argue they are valuable, particularly as the university markets itself as NE Ohio's regional research university.

The audience here isn't just folks watching the game.

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