No Pepsi, Please

At Columbia Pictures, things better go with Coke. That was the message in the memo sent to employees in Burbank, Calif., and New York last week by Studio Chairman Frank Price. He told executives that Columbia's new owner, the Coca-Cola Co. of Atlanta, which bought the film and entertainment firm last winter for some $820 million, would not take kindly to finding telltale signs of products like 7-Up and Pepsi-Cola on studio property.

Price reportedly decreed that no competing soft drinks should be served at company functions. Whenever possible, he went on, even the blue color associated with Coke's archrival, Pepsi, should be avoided as a decorative accent at Columbia-sponsored activities. Peter Benoit, Columbia's national publicity manager, says that moviegoers are unlikely to be seeing an actor sipping a Pepsi in Columbia films either.

Celebrity Answers

Owners of telephone answering machines have long had a vexing problem: many people hang up as soon as they hear a recorded response. Celebrity Voices, a North Hollywood, Calif., firm, thinks that its taped impersonations of famous people might be a humorous way to coax callers into leaving a message. Prices for the personalized recordings are $29.95 and up. Since the company started business in April, it has taken orders worth more than $162,000.

Says the bestselling Nixon imitation:

"Good evening, my fellow Americans. My good friend Frank is unable to come to the phone just now, but let me make one thing perfectly clear: he's busy taping something for me, and if you leave your name and number, he'll get right back to you." A pause, and the voice concludes: "I promise I won't erase the tape."

Celebrity Voices seeks to avoid lawsuits from subjects of the imitations by never actually using their names on the tapes. The voices, though, are easily recognizable. The world-weary Bogart, for example, brings back memories of Casablanca. While the song As Time Goes By plays softly in the background, the sound-alike says: "Leave your name and number. If you don't, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."

Hard-Times Baubles

Bracelets made of cardboard hardly sound like stepping-out gear, but in California they are fast becoming fashionable. Recession Ware bracelets, offered in novelty shops for $2.50 each, are the latest gimmick from master Marketer Stephen Askin, 43, of Los Angeles. During the Iranian hostage crisis, Askin sold Ayatullah Dartboards. More recently he has developed aerosol cans of water labeled Nuclear Fallout Repellant. Even zanier is his Deeley Bobber, a glitter-coated headset that looks like insect antennae. In the past ten weeks an estimated 2 million bobbers have been sold at $2.99 each.

In Recession Ware, Askin appears to have yet another hit. Asserts he: "People are in the doldrums with the recession and want to say, 'I'm still happy despite everything.' " The baubles have been on sale around Los Angeles for only three weeks, and business has been strong, especially with the Beverly Hills crowd. Says Askin: "They're feeling a little left out in Beverly Hills, and they want to get in on the recession too."

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