Road Film

Canon USA spent its summer on the road. The Lake Success, NY-based company sent its mobile marketing 18-wheeler on a 10-city tour, stopping at events like the U.S. Hot Air Balloon Championships in Champaign, IL, and an education forum for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Canon gave away digital photos that parents can use as IDs if kids go missing, part of the Center’s “Picture Them Home” campaign. Visitors also got digital photos to e-mail to friends or printed as postcard souvenirs.

Separately, Canon is sponsoring the United Nations Environment Programme’s “Focus on Your World” photography competition commemorating the new millennium. It’s Canon’s third tie-in with the U.N., following competitions pegged to the ’91-’92 Earth Summit and the U.N.’s 50th anniversary in ’94-’95. Pros and amateurs submit their photos until April 30,2000.

Canon’s camera sales have risen steadily, although they’re only a fraction of the company’s total sales of $24.4 billion in ’98, up two percent from ’97.