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Simon Marketing

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History

[edit]

Simon Marketing, Inc., also known as Simon Worldwide, Inc., was a publicly-held, full-service multinational promotional marketing company which specialized in the design and development of high-impact advertising products and sales promotions and was based in Irvine, California. The company was founded in 1976 by Simon Molloy, whom the "Simon" part of the company's name is derived from.

Around 1988, the company entered the video business. During its time in the business, it had an East Coast counterpart based in New York, called Promotional Concept Group, Inc.

Simon Marketing's video releases were often duplicated in EP/SLP mode, sometimes with only a linear audio track, such as some early releases (while some releases were in SP mode, with a hi-fi audio track), and opened with a tracking control disclaimer ID in a black background, which looked like this: 

      FOR MAXIMUM
   PICTURE  QUALITY
   IT MAY BE NECESSARY
      TO ADJUST THE
    TRACKING  CONTROL
       ON YOUR VCR

The "FOR MAXIMUM PICTURE QUALITY" text was greenish blue, while the remaining text was white. Over the disclaimer, a male announcer can be heard saying, "Please note: For maximum picture quality, it may be necessary to adjust the tracking control on your VCR." This disclaimer was also used on most Starmaker Entertainment tapes, as well as some HBO Video Special Gift Edition tapes, except HBO Video Special Gift Edition tapes had a silent variant of the disclaimer.[1] Sometimes, the disclaimer is followed by either a blue background variant of the 1980s Warner Home Video FBI warning screen or the 1986-1991 Vestron Video warning screen. In addition, their releases generally reused images of the boxes of the client's releases, except on Vestron Video titles sold through the company, the client's logo and video copyright information are removed, and as always, the client's UPC codes are replaced with Simon Marketing's own UPC codes, and the client's stock number is removed. On releases prior to 1993, the prefix of the UPC codes was "097428". This was changed to "768422".

In 1997, Simon was sold to a Massachusetts-based promotion company, called Cyrk, which was once one of the largest promotion companies, and in May 2002, Simon went into liquidation, likely because Simon and McDonald's sued each other the previous year. Simon was also sued by Philip Morris USA. The lawsuits alleged that one of Simon's directors, who was arrested by the FBI, rigged several sales promotion games distributed by Simon.

List of Retail and Cross-Promotion Customers

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  • McDonald's Corporation (19??-2001)
  • Philip Morris USA (19??-2001)
    • Kraft Foods (19??-2001)
  • Ralphs (1990) (select pressings of 15 Vestron Video titles)
  • Shop-Rite (1990) (select pressings of 15 Vestron Video titles)

List of Home Media Customers

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  • Starmaker Entertainment (1989-1990)
  • ABC Video Enterprises (199?-199?)
  • LIVE Home Video (19??-199?)
    • Family Home Entertainment (19??-199?)
    • Vestron Video (1988-1993)
  • The Maier Group (1990-1992) (some copies of Inspector Gadget: The Invasion)
  • DiC Video (199?-1992) (except titles released in association with Golden Book Video)
  • New Line Home Video (1991-199?)
  • HBO Video (1989-199?)
  • Random House Home Video (1991-1992) (some copies of The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners and Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever!)
  • Strand Home Video (1990-1993)
  • Media Home Entertainment (1989-1993)[2]
  • J2 Communications (1988-1993)
  • Just for Kids Home Video (199?-199?)
  • Turner Home Entertainment (1991) (some copies of Captain Planet and the Planeteers: A Hero for Earth)

Releases

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  1. Mr. Mom (Vestron Video)
  2. Dirty Dancing (Vestron Video)
  3. Blame It on Rio (Vestron Video)
  4. Easy Money (Vestron Video)
  5. TBD
  6. Heidi (Vestron Video)
  7. Hoosiers (Vestron Video)
  8. Platoon (Vestron Video)
  9. Neil Diamond: Glad You're Here with Me Tonight
  10. Making Michael Jackson's Thriller (Vestron Video)
  11. Babar the Elephant Comes to America (Vestron Video)
  12. Elton John: Breaking Hearts Tour
  13. The Adventures of the Little Prince (Vestron Video)
  14. Puff the Magic Dragon (Vestron Video)
  15. Puff and the Incredible Mr. Nobody (Vestron Video)
  16. Puff the Magic Dragon in the Land of Living Lies (Vestron Video)
  17. TBD
  18. No Way Out
  19. On Golden Pond (J2 Communications)
  20. Desperately Seeking Susan
  21. TBD
  22. TBD
  23. Cinderella
  24. Elton John: Live in Australia
  25. Sleeping Beauty
  26. The Big Easy
  27. ¡Three Amigos! (HBO Video)
  28. The Last Unicorn (J2 Communications)
  29. Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling: The Wrong Stuff/Three Little Hulks
  30. The Care Bears: The Magic Shop/Concrete Rain
  31. The Jungle Book: Kichi Is Alone
  32. G.I. Joe: The Movie (Celebrity Home Entertainment)
  33. TBD
  34. Moonlighting
  35. Inspector Gadget: The Invasion (The Maier Group)
  36. Star Wars: Ewoks Vol. 1
  37. TBD
  38. TBD
  39. Punky Brewster: Little Orphan Punky (Celebrity Home Entertainment)
  40. Kissyfur!: Hugs and Kissyfur (Celebrity Home Entertainment)
  41. Prizzi's Honor (Vestron Video)
  42. Silkwood (Vestron Video)
  43. Huckleberry Finn
  44. The Flamingo Kid (Vestron Video)
  45. Class Reunion (Vestron Video)
  46. The Velveteen Rabbit
  47. The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners (Random House Home Video)
  48. Captain Planet and the Planeteers: A Hero for Earth (Turner Home Entertainment)
  49. Punky Brewster: Punky Power (Celebrity Home Entertainment)
  50. Bozo, the World's Most Famous Clown
  51. Rude Dog: Dweebin' Around in a Pink Cadillac (Celebrity Home Entertainment)
  52. Young Doctors in Love (Vestron Video)
  53. Buns of Steel 2: Step Workout
  54. Take the Money and Run
  55. TBD
  56. TBD
  57. Total Recall (Live Home Video)
  58. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (Live Home Video)
  59. TBD
  60. The Fabulous Baker Boys (Live Home Video)
  61. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (New Line Home Video)
  62. Weekend at Bernie's (Live Home Video)
  63. TBD
  64. TBD
  65. TBD
  66. Eric Clapton and Friends (Vestron Video)
  67. Meatballs (HBO Video)
  68. The Cannonball Run (HBO Video)
  69. Billy Crystal: Don't Get Me Started (Vestron Video)
  70. Babar: The Movie (Live Home Video)
  71. The Care Bears: The Last Laugh/The Show Must Go On
  72. TBD
  73. Labyrinth (New Line Home Video)
  74. TBD
  75. TBD
  76. Beverly Hills Teens
  77. Young Guns (Vestron Video)
  78. Rambo: First Blood Part II (Live Home Video)

Duplicators

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  • Celebrity Duplicating Services, Canoga Park, CA (199?-199?) (tapes from Just for Kids Home Video)
  • Technicolor Video Services, Livonia, MI (1988-199?)
  • Technicolor Videocassette, Inc., Newbury Park, CA (1988-1990?)
  • West Coast Video Duplicating, Inc., Brisbane, CA* (1991-1992) (tapes from ABC Video Enterprises, alongside The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners from Random House Home Video, Captain Planet and the Planeteers: A Hero for Earth from Turner Home Entertainment and The Star Wars Trilogy Animated Collection, Volume 1 from J2 Communications)
  • TBD (Inspector Gadget: The Invasion from The Maier Group)

NOTE: *Tapes duplicated here used a different variant of the tracking control disclaimer ID, in which the text was italicized, the font was different, and the announcement voiceover was provided by a different male.

Trivia

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  • The first Simon Marketing tapes, at least the ones duplicated by Technicolor Videocassette in Newbury Park, were known to end with a black screen test pattern with a 400hz tone, like most pre-1989 tapes duplicated by Technicolor Videocassette in Newbury Park.
  • Most Simon Marketing tapes were duplicated by Technicolor Video Services in Livonia.
  • While Simon Marketing tapes usually did not have spine labels, copies of Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever! from Random House Home Video sold through them were known to have such a label.

Locations

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  • Irvine, California (headquarters)

References

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  1. ↑ Here is what the tracking control disclaimer ID looked like on most Simon Marketing/Promotional Concept Group tapes
  2. ↑ https://vhscollector.com/movie/madeline
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