City's core backdrop for TV ads
August 13, 2009
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/617253
Think the backdrop of Aero's new floating chocolate bubbles ad looks eerily like downtown Hamilton?
Or that the road the new Kia Forte Koup jets down in its new ad is strikingly like the city's industrial core?
If so, you've got a good eye.
Both ads were recently shot in Hamilton and will be broadcast nationally.
Kia filmed its new ad for the 2010 Forte Koup in both Steeltown and Toronto, spending June 21 in the city before heading east to finish the three-day shoot.
In an e-mail, a spokesperson for the company said Hamilton was chosen to "get a couple of different-looking locations" rather than "typical Toronto locations."
The company said the shoot took place on Burlington Street and the ad clearly shows the Forte driving along the popular thoroughfare. The crew also shot at the Hamilton Convention Centre.
Just days later, a company working on behalf of Nestle shot an ad for the Aero milk chocolate bar with floating chocolate bubbles in front of what appears to be the Gore Park fountain and the downtown intersection of Main and James.
Nestle said the ad was shot around the downtown. Hamilton, which was selected by the ad company, offered things like a "wide spectrum of attractive, architectural styles" and an abundance of city with lush green space close by.
The city estimated that out of all of the film projects that shoot in Hamilton each year, about 10 to 15 per cent are commercials.