Volume 1, No. 16. September 7, 2001
Two Photos of Zambonis themed by Safeway and Johnny Carino's.
Frozen dinner
Imagine, if you can, 12 chefs skating onto an ice rink. The occasion: to officially
welcome a spaghetti and meatballs dinner riding on the hood of a Zamboni themed
to look like a table at a classic Italian restaurant.
When Hyland Hills Park and Recreation District, operators of Water World in
the northern suburbs of Denver, Colorado, opened its three-rink ice center two
years ago, the district sold sponsorships wherever possible to cover costs:
naming rights (the Sun Microsystems Ice Centre), the 50 dash boards surrounding
each rink, and the three Zamboni ice resurfacing machines.
The last is by far the most clever. The Safeway Supermarket Zamboni looks like
a shopping cart filled with packaged foods. Safeway recoups some of the $5,000-per-year
sponsorship fee by selling space to food makers to show their products, such
as Nabisco Oreos, M&M/Mars Snickers candy bars, Kellogg's Pop Tarts, Minute
Maid, Tony's Pizza and Pepsi. A local Caterpillar dealer painted its Zamboni
as an earthmover scooping up hockey players. Then there's the Johnny Carino's
Italian Restaurant Zamboni, the newest in the fleet with a green-checkered tablecloth
and, sitting atop, a scrumptious-looking pasta dinner complete with tableware,
a bottle of red wine and two wine glasses. Behind the driver's seat the ice
resurfacer's fuel tanks have been painted as bottles of Forest Glen Merlot and
White Merlot.
"I would say we have the three most creative Zambonis anybody has seen," said
Joann Saitta, Hyland Hills communications manager. "How many times have you
seen a full Italian meal on a Zamboni?" Not ever, said Paula Jensen, general
manager of Zamboni Merchandising. She has seen plenty of Zambonis dolled up
to look like cows, UPS delivery trucks and a trash haulers. Hyland Hills' Italian
dinner takes the cake, though; or, rather, the spaghetti. "That's absolutely
one of my favorites," Jensen said. "It's clever, it's unique, and with the props
on top of the machine, it shows a lot of thought went into it."
Selling sponsorships throughout the ice centre—as well as for Water World
and the district's golf course complex—fell to Saitta, and she decided
nothing was off limits to any potential advertiser willing to scrape up the
cash. And for something as funny-looking and suitably named as the Zamboni,
she decided to go beyond the standard format of a logo emblazoned on the sides
and top.
"I go out looking for companies that want to have fun with the Zamboni," she
said. "We told them, 'You can really be as creative as you want.'" So, when
Johnny Carino's suggested outfitting theirs with a meal, Saitta said, "Why not?"
The ingredient of the spaghetti, sauce, wine and tableware is styrofoam. The
only stipulation concerning their placement on the Zamboni's hood was that they
could not obstruct the drivers' view.
As far as Zamboni is concerned, owners may do whatever they like with their
resurfacers, but Jensen did have a note of caution for anyone driving Hyland
Hills' machine. "We don't suggest having any wine while driving the machine.
Or eating the spaghetti. You should wait until you finish resurfacing the ice."
To see other examples of decorated Zambonis, visit the company's web site at
www.zamboni.com and click
on the "history and trivia" button.
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