Advertising Age, April 13, 1992,by Bradley Johnson and 
Alison Fahey 
Taster's Choice says play it again"
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This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

Nestle Beverage Co. is negotiating with Turner Broadcasting 
System to tie in Taster's Choice coffee with the 50th 
anniversary video release of ''Casablanca.'' 

Nestle wants to insert its four serialized commercials 
featuring the hopelessly romantic Taster's Choice couple at 
the beginning of the video, or possibly shoot a special spot 
tied to the movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid 
Bergman. 

''It obviously is a good fit -- romance with Taster's Choice 
and romance in the movie,'' said Cathy Ives, product manager 
at Nestle. 

Although Turner began a limited movie theater release of 
''Casablanca'' in seven major cities last week, the instant 
coffee brand's involvement would start with the home video 
release later this year by the company's Turner Home 
Entertainment division. 

Ms. Ives, who said Nestle is talking about various 
promotional tie-ins with the video, hopes to complete an 
agreement within the next two weeks. 

The promotion would include sponsoring the video and a 
related commemorative book, said Anne Fox, media director at 
Nestle USA, at a cable TV conference last week. 

But Ms. Ives later in the week cautioned that Nestle was 
still in negotiations. 

"We're working to put a promotion together, [but] the 
details aren't finalized,'' she said. ''It's not definite, 
it's not a done deal.'' 

Sponsoring a classic romance like ''Casablanca'' is a 
natural for Taster's Choice, whose commercials since late 
1990 have been built around the budding friendship between 
two neighbors, played by actors Anthony Head and Sharon 
Maughan. McCann-Erickson Worldwide, New York, is the agency. 

It's believed Turner plans to promote the ''Casablanca'' 
video release on some or all four Turner networks: Turner 
Network Television, Cable News Network, Headline News and 
WTBS. 

Turner has been aggressively shopping multimedia packages 
combining its cable TV, book publishing and home video 
properties. 

Photo: Taster's Choice wants to tie in with "Casablanca." 



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