CHICAGO, Ill. (Feb. 9, 2005) – What do pop diva Beyoncé and Bridgestone Potenza performance tires have in common? Hollywood director Matthew Rolston.

Rolston has produced videos for Beyoncé and has just completed a highly-stylized television spot for Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire’s racing-inspired Potenza tire, along with four other non-traditional commercials.

For the first time since the 1980s, Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC (BFNT) is launching its most extensive mass-reach advertising campaign featuring the Bridgestone brand. The 2005 television and print campaigns will reflect a unique industry approach and will continue to include a special emphasis on diversity marketing.

“We are enthusiastic about conveying the essence of the Bridgestone brand – innovative, sophisticated and dynamic – in the form of unique ‘music videos’ – a television advertising approach truly new to our industry,” explained John Gamauf, president of consumer tire replacement sales, BFNT.

BFNT will launch a full television campaign for each product family under the Bridgestone umbrella – Potenza™, Turanza™, Dueler™ and Blizzak™. A final brand image spot will combine the four product families and accentuate the cutting-edge technology of Bridgestone tires.

“We decided to reach out to Hollywood to accomplish our vision,” explained Gamauf. “World renowned photographer and director Matthew Rolston was able to tell the overall story and communicate the attributes of each tire family with break-through visuals, imaging and artistic branding.”

Rolston’s credits include music videos for Beyoncé, Jessica Simpson, Lenny Kravitz, Madonna and television commercials for Gap, L’Oreal, Old Navy, Revlon and Levi’s.

Featuring a re-mix of the Rosanne Cash song, “The Wheel,” 22 versions of the Bridgestone brand television commercials comprise an international effort, appearing as 30-and 15-second commercials throughout the Americas in English, French and Spanish.

“We also have customized this massive television advertising effort to include 20 taggable versions of the five product family image spots, and we’re making them available in three languages for dealers to directly target their local consumers,” Gamauf said.

“In addition to the 42 versions of the product family spots, there are 49 other Bridgestone or Firestone commercials, including new retail-focused promotional spots, for a total of 91 versions of all 2005 Bridgestone and Firestone commercials – truly a massive effort in broadcast consumer reach,” Gamauf concluded.

The Bridgestone product family “music video” spots will be seen throughout 2005 on national cable networks: VH1, Spike TV, MTV, The History Channel, TNT, TLC, HGTV, ESPN, ESPN2, FOX Sports, FX, Comedy Central, tbs, Discovery Channel, SCI FI and USA Network.

“We are proud of this pioneering advertising initiative and are excited to show consumers our diverse Bridgestone products in such an artistic light,” added Michael Fluck, advertising and Internet manager, BFNT.

On the print side of the ad coin, BFNT will also convey the Bridgestone brand message in 2005 through mass print outlets such as USA Today, People, Playboy, Rolling Stone, AutoWeek, Car & Driver, Motor Trend, Road & Track and in diversity publications including Jet, Ebony, People en Español, Motor Trend en Español, Out and The Advocate.

New York-based advertising agency Grey Worldwide produced the 2005 Bridgestone television commercials. Nashville-based Gish, Sherwood & Friends served as creative agency for the 2005 Bridgestone print advertising campaign.

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