'O.C. Register' Wins Award, Keeps on Truckin'

By: Graham Webster The Orange County (Calif.) Register has won an award for coverage of trucks ? literally. The Santa Ana-based paper won the grand prize in Fleet Owner magazine's annual Vehicle Graphics Awards for its 100th anniversary trucks, which are emblazoned with color photographs.

The four semi-trailers and 22 smaller trucks that deliver some 300,000 daily copies of the Register were fitted with the new design by John Gothold of the design firm DGWB, also in Santa Ana. The photographs on the truck's sides depict, among other things, the 1969 moon landing; President Nixon meeting Chairman Mao Tse-Tung in 1972; and Orange County's first test tube baby (in 1978). "We felt like it was a great opportunity to leverage our truck fleet," says Lelani Bluner, the Register's director of marketing and promotions.

And they're not stopping there. Before the Register turns 100 on Nov. 25, a series of television commercials, bus shelter ads, and a new book will be used to promote the newspaper. "On our bus shelters, you might see an image of the Berlin Wall coming down, and the message on the bus shelter would say, 'What will happen tomorrow?'" The paper begins a 100-day countdown to its centennial on Aug. 14.