Advertising Campaign

Crown Books, the discount bookseller that declared bankruptcy a year ago, expects to emerge from Chapter 11 protection in time for the holiday selling season, with hopes of rolling out its first new-format stores by next fall.Crown said yesterday that it has spent the past year closing nearly half of its 174 stores, revamping its format, rebuilding inventory, improving distribution and cutting operating expenses by $25 million.The Landover-based company filed a reorganization plan Wednesday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and expects approval by October.

WASHINGTON -- The Census Bureau unveiled its first-ever paid advertising campaign yesterday as part of a $167 million effort to reach minority groups that have been missed in past national head counts.The campaign is aimed at reversing a 30-year trend toward fewer Americans completing and returning the census forms that are mailed out once a decade. The ads will target groups that have historically been undercounted: blacks, Latinos, American Indians and new immigrants from all countries.

Regional manufacturers asked local government executives yesterday to help pay for an advertising campaign that aims to improve the tarnished image of manufacturing industries.At a meeting called by Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich, the Regional Manufacturing Institute argued that the reputation of manufacturing as a declining industry has reduced the number of people seeking the high-paying jobs that remain."The barriers are people not understanding and not valuing manufacturing," said Michael Galiazo, executive director of the institute, at a meeting attended by about 20 government and business leaders.

The Howard Baptist Association, which launched an advertising campaign to attract the spiritually needy, has gone on-line to do the same thing.The 21-member group of Southern Baptist churches, which has its headquarters in Columbia's Town Center, went on the World Wide Web several weeks ago so its churches and members would not be left behind in interactive computer communication."

Get used to him. You'll be seeing him all over Baltimore television and cable channels and hearing him on radio next month."Please don't be frightened. I'm not going to hurt anybody," he says.Philadelphia-native Mark Sarian, a 26-year-old living in Canton, will perform in a series of 30-second commercials promoting downtown Baltimore businesses and attractions. Mr. Sarian beat out more than 300 contestants who auditioned this month to be the host of the "Downtown Baltimore Show.""I won the human lottery," says Mr. Sarian, manager of Britches Great Outdoors clothing store in Bethesda.

The transformation of Baltimore's Inner Harbor from rotting piers into a glittering waterfront recreational area is part of the nation's urban legend. But even as spring weather is drawing hordes of out-of-town tourists downtown, Baltimore promotion officials complain that thousands of locals never take advantage of attractions there.This weekend they are testing an intriguing question: If you throw a free party, will Baltimoreans come?On Saturday and Sunday, downtown shops, restaurants, institutions and neighborhoods will offer nearly 100 activities for everyone to explore.

An article in yesterday's editions reported incorrectly that the Downtown Partnership has launched a $1.7 advertising campaign to promote its "clean and safe" program. In fact, the ad campaign is being conducted at no cost to the organization because local media are donating time or space for the ads.The Sun regrets the errors.A $1.7 million advertising campaign was launched this month to sell downtown Baltimore as a safe place for tourists and residents.The public service spots on radio and television and in print that will run through the summer aim to change perceptions that Baltimore is a crime-ridden city.

The Board of Estimates gave tentative approval yesterday to a $200,000 matching grant to city tourism officials for an advertising campaign to bring badly needed business and conventioneers to Baltimore.The board reserved final approval of the grant until tourism officials present a detailed marketing plan -- a delay that was prompted by Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean's query about what the agency had done in the last few years to sell the city."I want to see what they're doing and how they're spending the money," Mrs. McLean said later.

In one fashion ad, which appeared in Gentlemen's Quarterly, a lithe young model stands provocatively, his eyes closed, his arms raised so that his sweater rises just enough to show a hairy stomach; his jogging pants hang off his hips.If that sounds a bit racy, consider Tanline's thong bikini print ad, which ran in men's exercise magazines. The ad includes three men posed so that their muscles ripple; each wears a thong shown from a different, but equally sensual, angle.Or open the current issue of Details magazine and take a look at the pensive male model in the ad for the Cross Colours hip-hop collection.

The General Assembly appropriated $5 million this year for an anti-cancer campaign in Maryland, which has the nation's worst cancer rate. A key element was to have been a heavy anti-smoking media campaign in low-income areas. However, after heavy lobbying by tobacco interests, the legislators included an amendment that only $250,000 of the $5 million can be spent on the media. Cancer screening and other prevention services would not be affected. State officials have put the advertising campaign on hold to study the legalities of the restrictions.

Tyson Foods Inc. has settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by two competitors, including Maryland's Perdue Farms, alleging that the Arkansas company used deceptive marketing to lie about its antibiotics use in poultry. But now the company faces lawsuits from consumers. Four cases claiming to represent thousands of people have been filed this month in federal courts across the country, including two in Baltimore since Friday. Each seeks class action status, and each alleges that Tyson violated state consumer protection acts.

With many homeowners facing foreclosure but not seeking help, state officials are launching an advertising campaign on buses and billboards and through print and radio spots to get their attention with the slogan: "Mortgage Late? Don't Wait!" "Help may well be available, but you have to pick up the phone and ask," Gov. Martin O'Malley said at a news conference to announce the campaign yesterday. "About 50 percent of people who go through foreclosure never pick up the phone to call and ask for help.

A federal judge in Baltimore ordered Tyson Foods yesterday to stop using a recent advertising campaign because he says it is misleading consumers into believing that the poultry giant is raising its chickens drug-free. The U.S. District Court ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed against the company by Salisbury-based Perdue Farms and Sanderson Farms of Mississippi. The competing poultry producers claim that they're losing millions of dollars to Tyson because its advertising falsely claims that the company's birds are not medicated.

Amid an advertising campaign by Maryland teachers unions to call attention to what it says are worst-in-the-nation pensions, lawmakers of both parties promised yesterday to try to improve public retiree benefits this year. Teachers say better pensions are crucial to attracting and retaining the best educators, and they are working to make their cause a hot election-year issue. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. did not include pension enhancements in the $29.6 billion spending proposal he released last week, but his budget secretary says the governor remains open to the idea of better benefits as a way to keep good teachers in Maryland.

Like Subway's famous sandwich-eating spokesman, Raymond Bond was once a certifiably obese man who shed nearly half his weight with rigorous diet and exercise. So impressed were the staff members at Bond's fitness club, he says, that they asked him to pose for a photograph to be posted on the bulletin board of the Padonia gym. He agreed. But within days of the photo shoot, an image of Bond holding the size 46 pants he wore when he weighed 331 pounds began appearing in newspapers, fliers and coupons around the Baltimore area as the centerpiece of Brick Bodies' new advertising campaign.

The quotes flash across the lawyer's Web site like the snippets that assault theatergoers in movie trailers. "DANGEROUS in front of a jury." "Thoroughly prepared, aggressively pursued." "Scoring with the jury, Rolex and all." Then, a questionnaire takes shape on the screen: Do you have a billion-dollar set of facts? Is the target's conduct egregious? Can the target afford to pay if you win? Answer "no" to even one of these questions, and you'll be redirected to a photo of attorney Stephen L. Snyder in an indoor pool, shirtless with sunglasses atop his balding head, flashing a double thumbs-down sign.

The poster of a girl bears a chilling message: REWARD. For information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the murder of Jessica Rogers. In a city like Baltimore with its triple-digit homicide rates, the case of Jessica Rogers has caught the attention of many who feel sympathy and concern for the child and her family. The reward poster of the Audrey Hepburnish-looking girl is taped to telephone poles and news racks around town. But she isn't real. The case of Jessica Rogers is really a case of a successful - if objectionable - advertising campaign.

Sarah McClendon, 92, a White House reporter who covered every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt and was known for shouting questions at most of them, died Tuesday at the Washington Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She had been hospitalized since late last month. For more than half a century, presidents were confronted by her questions about treatment of veterans, government secrecy and other issues. She said it was her duty to be aggressive with the nation's leaders. She founded a weekly newsletter, McClendon News Service, and her radio commentary at one point was carried by 1,200 stations.

Believing in city leads only to regret I am outraged at City Council President Sheila Dixon's comment, "I do not want to see Baltimore under siege by some petty drug dealers" ("Man, 21, charged in fatal city fire," Oct. 18). What city does she live in? News flash: Baltimore is -- and has been for 25 years -- under siege by petty drug dealers. What is Ms. Dixon doing about it? I live in Guilford, arguably the best neighborhood in Baltimore, and yet even I do not feel safe here. Like every good neighborhood in Baltimore, Guilford is surrounded by seedy, crime-ridden areas.

The group running the state's new $14 million "Smoking Stops Here" advertising campaign includes a firm that owes back state taxes and has lost its corporate charter to do business in Maryland, records show. Twenty-First Century Group Inc. of Baltimore, a subcontractor, lost its charter in October -- three months before the Glendening administration awarded the advertising contract to a group headed by GKV Communications, formerly Gray/Kirk/VanSant Advertising. Adrian Harpool, chief executive of Twenty-First Century Group, said he wasn't aware that his firm's charter had been forfeited for failing to pay $4,300 in state taxes owed for 1999 until a reporter asked about it Friday.