California State Fair Promotes 'Carnaval' Theme

Don’t look for farm animals or Ferris wheels in Mering & Associates’ new campaign for the California State Fair. In fact, don’t look for any California imagery, either.

Instead, the latest effort from the fair’s longtime agency features scenes from … Brazil. While the setting might seem unusual, Mering creative director Greg Carson said it was a natural choice after fair organizers announced that the 2002 feature program would be “Viva Carnaval.”

Working with a shoestring production budget, Carson said filming the spots on digital video at a Brazilian Carnaval in Salvador, Bahia, was less expensive than trying to create Carnaval scenes closer to home.