Sammy Sosa is going to be hitting for Pepsi–not with a bat but with a swig aimed at building a new generation of consumers.
Sosa has signed a multiyear contract with Pepsi-Cola, including an appearance in a “Joy of Cola” TV commercial debuting on the March 26 Academy Awards telecast on ABC, a Pepsi spokesman said Tuesday.
Sosa will also appear in in-store point-of-purchase materials for Pepsi and will be involved in its youth baseball program, the soft-drink maker said.
In addition to what sources say is a hefty seven-figure contract, the Purchase, N.Y.-based firm said it will donate $100,000 to the Sammy Sosa Foundation if the Cubs slugger hits 70 home runs this year.
That’s stretching his home run output of the last two years. He knocked out 63 last season and 66 in 1998. But Sammy is used to challenges.
Sosa, who will be 32 in November, has been a pitchman for such firms as Montgomery Ward, Kmart and MasterCard International.
Building up his endorsements can add big bucks for Sosa, who is in the last two years of a four-year, $40 million deal he signed with the Cubs in 1997.
Sosa can accept a $12.5 million salary in his option year at the end of 2001 or become a free agent; the Cubs hope, of course, to sign him before that time to a new contract.
Sosa was quoted in early February by a reporter in his native Dominican Republic as saying he wants a new, long-term $160 million contract with the Cubs. He denied tossing out such a figure.
Sosa will join entertainer-heartthrob Ricky Martin, currently the most visible hawker of Pepsi, which expects to add some other big names too. . In recent years, Pepsi has also had such hypesters as model Cindy Crawford.
Ferm joins Primedia: Former Chicagoan David G. Ferm, recently president of McGraw-Hill’s Business Week Group, on March 13 becomes president of Primedia Inc.’s Primedia Business-to-Business Group, with annual revenue topping $500 million. Ferm, who will continue to be based in New York, will oversee such Primedia properties as Kansas City-based Intertec Publishing (more than 100 business-to-business titles and 30 trade shows); Primedia Information, which includes Bacon’s Media Directories in Chicago; and IndustryClick, a business-to-business Internet company. Primedia’s other properties include the Channel One Network and such magazines as New York, Chicago and Modern Bride. Separately, McGraw-Hill elevated William P. Kupper Jr. to president of its Business Week Group, moving up from publisher of Business Week magazine.
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– Euro RSCG Worldwide, whose agencies include Euro RSCG Tatham in Chicago, acquired the Tyee Group, a Portland, Ore.-based direct response TV agency (billing of $60 million), which will become part of Euro RSCG’s marketing services operation, The Sales Machine, with total global capitalized billing annually estimated in excess of $1.75 billion. Separately, Tracy Zirin, recently a VP and assistant director of account management administration at DDB Chicago, rejoined Euro RSCG Tatham as director of client services, resources and administration, a newly created post. She reports to Gary Epstein, CEO of the agency.
– DirecTV Inc., a Los Angeles-based provider of digital satellite television entertainment, picked Lowe Lintas Columbian Chicago for relationship or direct marketing, succeeding Direct Partners in San Francisco. Consumer advertising for DirecTV Inc. is with Campbell-Ewald in Los Angeles.
– Young & Rubicam Inc. is acquiring Robinson Lerer & Montgomery, a Manhattan-based strategic communications firm, which will retain its identity and become part of Y&R’s Diversified Communications Group. Terms were not disclosed. Linda Gosden Robinson will continue as chairman-CEO of Robinson Lerer & Montgomery, while becoming a vice chairman of parent Y&R Inc. Management of Robinson Lerer & Montgomery in 1996 bought itself back from Bozell Inc., which as Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt acquired it a decade earlier. Y&R Inc. also includes the ad agency Young & Rubicam Advertising and PR firm Burson-Marsteller.
Strictly Personal: Birthday greetings to Elizabeth Latsos, 34 (Chanel); retired PR exec Hank Arenberg, 71; Mary Lou Davidson, 42 (Matrix Media-New York); Patrick J. Dolan, 39 (Olsten); Larry Anaszewicz, 60 (Chicago Baking Co.); and publisher’s rep Wayne J. Gardiner, 57.