Tom Shimizu's familiar flat crop hairstyle - made famous in his bids for the Salt Lake County Commission - has finally received national coverage.
Shimizu's level head - along with the athletic prowess of Utah State Fair Director Jackie Nokes, game president John Morgan and his wife, Daisy - was featured in a full-page, color ad in USA Today's Western edition Friday.Huntsman Chemical purchased the one-time $13,000 ad to promote the corporation's World Senior Games, slated for Oct. 14-25 in St. George.
Due to a "tighter ad budget," the large ad won't appear in other newspapers - including the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune where the same ad ran last year - said Wayne Evans, public relations executive for Evans Advertising.
But a series of "small-space" ads promoting the games are running in senior-citizen newspapers in Southern California, southern Nevada, Utah, Arizona and in one senior-citizen athletic publication in Great Britain.
Other promotional materials, including direct mail and news releases, are being utilized to attract international competitors to the Utah-based games.
"At the time we started it (the competition), Utah was in an economic slump and we wanted to put the state on the map," said Sylvia Wunderli, executive director and co-founder of the games. "We wanted to do something with sports and seniors and invite people from all over the world to Utah so they would see what a neat place it is - as well as participate in a great event."
With Morgan, owner of the St. George Hilton, Wunderli started the Senior Games in 1987. A year later, Huntsman Chemical donated $5,000.
Then in 1989, the corporation became the event's key financial supporter with its $200,000 ($100,000 in cash and $100,000 in promotion/advertising) donation. "This has been their annual contribution since that time," Wunderli said.
But participation in the games has steadily increased from 520 in 1987 to 1,563 last year. Last year the seniors - age 50 and older - came from three foreign countries (Germany, Mexico, Canada) and 41 different states to compete in more than a dozen sporting activities.
Events include tennis, basketball, cycling, racquetball, softball, swimming, golf, biathlon (running and cycling), horseshoes, bowling, road racing and walking, table tennis and track and field events.
"For the first time ever, a basketball team from East Berlin is coming to participate in the games this year. A second team is coming from West Germany," Wunderli said. "A lot of it is word of mouth and personal recruitment. But direct mail to sporting groups nationwide and the (newspaper) advertising has also helped increase participation."