Rodent campaigns in Spanish to passersby

Yesterday in Acorn Alley, a man dressed in a large squirrel costume was extolling the virtues of replacing worn-out shocks and struts as a part of Monroe Shocks and Struts’ worldwide campaign for regular shock absorber replacement in cars – en Español.

“So tell me the truth. Did you know that worn shocks can add up to 10 feet to your vehicle’s stopping distance?” the squirrel asked an unsuspecting man in the alley. The actor playing the squirrel for the day was Enrique Bazan, a Pittsburgh native from an agency called “The Talent Group”.

The day of shooting in Acorn Alley started at 7:30 a.m. and concluded with the Spanish version of the video, featuring Bazan playing a very gregarious, yet mechanically savvy rodent.

“It was one of those roles that I had to mentally prepare myself for,” Bazan jokes. “It’s always fun to animate an animal.”

“Some of the actors are tri-lingual, others have been brushing up on their foreign languages the past few nights,” said Drew Shippy, the President of Pinnacle Public Relations, the company that represents Monroe Auto Parts.

“We chose Kent because we wanted that small-town, main-street atmosphere,” said Shippy.

And where better to film a global advertisement for a squirrel-friendly company like Monroe than Acorn Alley, part of downtown Kent’s newly renovated shopping plaza? For Christine Bower, a Kent State alumna and account supervisor at Pinnacle, it was “the perfect location for what we wanted to do.”

The advertisement will be uploaded to Monroe’s Web site, www.savingsquirrels.com, sometime this month. In the meantime, Bower suggests logging on and playing the Frogger-esque video game where visitors can help the squirrel find his acorns.

Contact off-campus entertainment reporter Ryan Young at [email protected].