2008 Advertising Themes

The Leap Year Will Offer Dozens of Great Tie-ins for Commercials

© Carroll Trosclair

Dec 13, 2007
Olympic rings, Yahoo Image
The Olympics, the political conventions, the elections, leap day, the landing on Mars and some exciting anniversaries give advertisers lots of potential themes in 2008.

Advertisers will have an exciting choice of themes, event tie-ins and anniversaries to work with in 2008. Here are a few of the 2008 events and observances:

2008 Potential Tie-In Events

  • Jan. 7: The BCS national collegiate championship game: LSU vs Ohio State in the Louisiana Superdome
  • Jan. 21: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
  • Feb. 3: The Super Bowl, Glendale, AZ. The game’s expensive network time slots have been sold, but there will be plenty of opportunities for tie-ins on local stations.
  • Feb. 5: Mardi Gras.
  • Feb. 7: Start of the Chinese Year of the Rat.
  • Feb. 18: Presidents' Day
  • Feb. 29: Leap Day. Time for a Sadie Hawkins comeback.
  • March 17: St. Patrick’s Day.
  • April 20: Passover
  • May 25: Indianapolis 500 race.
  • Aug. 8-24: The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
  • Aug. 25-28: Democratic National Convention, Denver
  • Sep. 1: Labor Day
  • Sep. 1-4: Republican National Convention, Minneapolis
  • September: Start of professonal, college and high school football seasons and new jobs for dozens of coaches.
  • Sep. 30: Rosh Hashana
  • Oct. 9: Yom Kippur
  • Oct. 13: Canadian Thanksgiving Day
  • Nov. 4: Election day for USA president, House of Representatives and one third of U.S. Senate.
  • Nov. 11: Veterans Day
  • Nov.27: U.S. Thanksgiving Day
  • Dec. 21: Hanukkah
  • Dec. 25: Christmas

Advertisers will also have an interesting list of anniversaries to exploit. Some of the following are from the answer.com list of 1908 events.

These 100th Anniversaries Will Be Observed in 2008

  • Jan. 1: First New Year’s Eve ball drops on Times Square.
  • Jan. 11: Grand Canyon is designated a national monument. (It became a national park in 1919).
  • Jan. 21: The City of New York orders restaurant and hotel owners to prohibit women from smoking in public places. Katie Mulcahey goes to jail for violating the law.
  • Feb. 12: Drivers begin a 13,000-mile New York-to-Paris motorcar race which was won 169 days later by George Schuster of the USA.
  • March 29: The San Francisco Examiner introduces the "Mutt and Jeff" comic strip.
  • May 10: Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, WV observes first Mothers’ Day.
  • May 30: Congress adopts the first federal workmen's compensation law.
  • July 22: Fisher Body Company established.
  • July 26: U.S. Attorney General establishes Office of Chief Examiner (later named Federal Bureau of Investigation)
  • Sep. 16: General Motors Corp. is created by W. C. Durant.
  • Sept. 27: Ford produces first Model T automobile.
  • Nov. 15: Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to travel abroad, going to Panama to inspect progress on the canal.

The 50th Anniversary of These 1958 Events Will Be Observed in 2008:

  • April 15: Major league baseball debuts in California. San Francisco defeats Los Angeles in the state’s first-ever regular season game.
  • July 7: Eisenhower signs Alaska Statehood Act.
  • July 29: Congress creates National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA).

The 25th Anniversary of These 1983 Events Will Be Observed in 2008

  • Feb 28: Television series M*A*S*H ends after 251 episodes and 11 years on CBS.
  • April 7: Astronauts Donald Peterson and Story Musgrave perform first space shuttle spacewalk (4 hours 10 minutes).
  • April 15: American Public Radio is founded.
  • June 18: Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space.

The copyright of the article 2008 Advertising Themes in Advertising is owned by Carroll Trosclair. Permission to republish 2008 Advertising Themes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.


Olympic rings, Yahoo Image
       


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