Obies cancelled, OAAA develops healing message

North America’s largest and most prestigious outdoor advertising awards were cancelled due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.

The OBIE Awards presentation had been slated to take place on September 12 at New York’s Lincoln Center, as part of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) National Convention, which was also cancelled.

OAAA director of communications Sheila Hayes said that about one third of the delegates had arrived when the attack took place. No attendees were reported to be injured.

Hayes says that on the day of the attack, in an effort to help relieve the pain felt by the U.S. and the world, OAAA delegates and organizers developed a healing message. ‘In God We Trust. United We Stand,’ is to be presented in a simple white typeface on a black background in the U.S., with ‘United With Our Neighbours. God Bless America,’ suggested for Canadians.

The association is asking that O-O-H media companies in the U.S. and Canada donate billboards, transit shelters and other venues to display the message.

At press time, the OAAA had still not decided how and when it will announce the OBIE Awards results, but Hayes says it’s likely that the winners will be contacted individually by mail, and the full list will subsequently be posted on the OAAA Web site (www.oaaa.org). DH

Mexx takes shop window to the streets

Montreal-based Mexx Canada has developed Canada’s first shop window on wheels. The 18-foot illuminated glass case housing a traditional fashion display will tour Montreal’s streets until the end of September to kick off the Mexx fall-winter 2001 clothing collection. Four giant billboards in Montreal will support.

In Toronto the new collection will debut via three giant wall murals; in Calgary, buses and vertical billboards will be employed; and the Vancouver market will see a bus campaign.

The roving shop window was developed by Montreal-based P.R. Média in conjunction with Montreal’s Publicis Canada. Optimedia handled the traditional media buys. DH

‘New-found beauty’ for dump trucks

Toronto-based dieselmediainc. has found one of the few remaining untapped venues for advertising in downtown Toronto: heavy construction equipment.

Dump trucks and other vehicles are already being festooned with advertising masks the company says will reach over three million consumers per month. As an added bonus, the company notes that the ads will ‘bring a new- found beauty to these monsters of the road.’

We at Strategy are especially looking forward to the neck-limbering possibilities offered up by rotating cement mixers. DH