TheBuzz
TheBuzz
New scum prevention
product behind the
lime-green signsThose curious about the "Life is Hard" sign-wavers, T-shirts, stickers and media teases will be sated here.
For weeks the bright, lime-colored shirts and signs have been alongside political signwavers on street corners, in your newspaper and on radio and television with the message, "Life is Hard. Lighten Yours. Call 848-0440."
A troupe of sign-wavers selected for its famous physical antics was dispatched to attract attention and get people talking. The Hawaii Pacific University cheerleading squad, dance team and spirit club was to be paid $5,000 for its efforts but the client was so impressed with its work the team will be presented with a $10,000 check -- half the cost of its upcoming trip to a national competition.
Calls to the number netted a free T-shirt and bumper sticker offer, but not much information.
It is now being "leaked" that the whole campaign is about a coating material called MicroGuard.
GP Maintenance Solutions Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Grace Pacific Corp., announced in August it obtained the exclusive Hawaii rights to market the Florida-made product line.
Advertising guru Martin Schiller is behind the multi-faceted effort to get the word out in a splashier fashion.
MicroGuard manufacturer Adsil claims the product is permanent and prevents corrosion and oxidation, restores existing surfaces, reduces or eliminates mold, prevents tarnish on polished metal and protects against graffiti.
The claims made GP manager David Takiguchi, a civil engineer, hesitant to take his current job. He didn't want to sound like an infomercial pitch man, he said.
Seeing and using MicroGuard and sister-product MicroPlus changed his mind, not about the infomercial persona, but about the job.
His customers include Island Ready-Mix Concrete Inc., which had its trucks treated. It has "greatly reduced the ability of the concrete to adhere to the trucks' surfaces," according to General Manager F.H. "Shorty" Kuhn.
MicroGuard must be applied by GP's applicators, but MicroPlus, which is not permanent, is available for consumer use. Takiguchi uses it "bumper to bumper" on his car with "no worries about plastic, windows, rubber or anything on the car." Rain beads on his windshield, he said, as it does in bathtubs or showers. "It's hydrophobic. Water doesn't like to bind to it so it's nonslip but not gritty, sticky or abrasive," he said.
Pint-sized bottles are sold only at GP at 110 Puuhale Road from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; it costs $14.95 plus tax. Once GP receives a UPC code from the manufacturer the product will go into wider distribution.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com