Any doubts Dwight Lawson had about naming Zoo Atlanta’s latest baby panda after an animated movie character vanished when he came across a little girl who’d just visited the zoo’s latest luminary.
“Tell Po I say ‘Hey!’ ” the little girl said.
For Lawson, the zoo’s deputy director, that quick exchange told him all he needed to know. Giving the zoo’s little bear the same name as the roly-poly star of the “Kung Fu Panda” movies was a slick move.
“I think this will be a real reference point for kids,” said Lawson, who’s been at the zoo 11 years. “Hopefully, we can capitalize on that.”
DreamWorks Animation, the production company responsible for the “Kung Fu Panda” movies and other blockbusters — the “Shrek” series comes to mind — shares his hopes. It bought Po’s name last week.
In the latest wrinkle of the ever-expanding universe of corporate naming opportunities, the studio agreed to spend an undisclosed amount to help defray Zoo Atlanta’s $500,000 annual fees to China to keep the pandas on display here.
In exchange, the zoo’s youngest Ailuropoda melanoleuca was named after a DreamWorks character that looks as if it never turned down an extra helping of bamboo. Its voice is provided by actor Jack Black, who shares some of the movie panda’s physical characteristics.
Just how the real-life and fictional Pos might intersect before and after the movie hits theaters is not yet clear, but for Zoo Atlanta, just being known as “the” zoo where the movie’s fans can see the “real” Po is a promotional dream.
A DreamWorks marketing representative in Atlanta suggested the arrangement. Anne Globe, DreamWork’s director of worldwide marketing, thinks it’s a good fit.
“What’s exciting for us is that it’s so serendipitous,” she said. The panda just reached 100 days of age, the traditional time that the Chinese bears are given a name. “KFP 2” is scheduled for release in May. “We’re thrilled such an association could be made,” she said.
So thrilled that DreamWorks struck a comparable deal with another zoo in Spain. Like Zoo Atlanta, it has a little panda. And, like Zoo Atlanta’s, that little panda is now named Po.
Planes and penguins
Corporate naming opportunities these days run the gamut, and the money involved runs into the billions of dollars. Farmers Insurance just signed a $700 million deal to have its name attached to a yet-unbuilt professional football stadium in Los Angeles.
Locally, there’s the Chick-fil-A Bowl, formerly known as the Peach Bowl, and Philips Arena, where the Hawks and Thrashers play. Last year, the name of a NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway reminded fans that the speeding cars came to them courtesy of Emory Healthcare. There’s been talk, too, about selling naming rights to Atlanta’s Chastain Park Amphitheater and even the annual Georgia-Florida football game.
As with sports, such sponsorships are a big a part of zoo life, said Steve Feldman, a spokesman for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The nonprofit organization, based in Silver Spring, Md., represents more than 200 institutions.
“It’s something that’s been going on for a long time,” he said.
Examples abound. There’s the Cessna Penguin Cove at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kan., hometown of the ubiquitous small plane. The North Carolina Zoo has the R.J. Reynolds Forest Aviary.
It’s also got C’Sar, a bull elephant whose name is an acronym of Contractors Service and Rentals, a former Charlotte company that in 1978 ponied up $12,000 to help get the pachyderm from Kenya to America. He was 4, then a mere kid; now he’s 37, a five-ton reminder of the relationship between zoos and their sponsors.
Money well-spent? Zoo spokesman Rod Hackney thinks so. “It’s been, what, 33 years?” he asked.
Locally, there’s Henry, a young fellow at Zoo Atlanta. Ford Motor Co. bought the right to name the Western Lowland gorilla, honoring its company founder. Macy Baby, another gorilla, got its name through a donation from well-known department store.
Then there is the new species, Callicebus aureipalatti, a foot-tall monkey discovered in Bolivia a few years ago. Its scientific name translates to “golden palace” — an homage to Internet gambling site GoldenPalace.com, which paid $650,000 for the right to name the species.
Deals can backfire
For DreamWorks, linking a bona fide panda (or two) to one on the screen is a smart promotional move, said Ken Bernhardt, a professor of marketing at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.
“Pandas are something that people just love, especially the younger people,” he said. “By naming the panda after one of their characters, that gives them lots of positive exposure.”
“I haven’t even watched the movie yet, but from a commercial sense, it’s perfect for Zoo Atlanta,” said Atlanta publicist Cherry Banez. “Jack Black is well-liked, and who doesn’t love pandas?”
Of course, there’s are those corporate sponsorships and celebrity connections that go wrong. Consider a famous golfer with a reputation for sexual misconduct, or a famed quarterback whose dog-fighting habit landed him in prison.
“Just think Tiger Woods or Michael Vick,” said Banez. “How fast did sponsors retreat from them?”
She also recalled Enron Corp., the Houston energy company whose accounting practices lost billions. Before that 2001 scandal, fans of the Houston Astros cheered their favorite team at Enron Field. These days, it’s called Minute Maid Stadium.
So that begs the question: Might DreamWorks be eyeing other animals for naming honors? Is a fish somewhere waiting to be named “Nemo,” after the 2003 animated film about a wayward little swimmer?
Globe, the DreamWorks executive, laughed. “Nemo,” she said, “was not our fish.”
That honor would have to go to Walt Disney Pictures, another company that knows a few things about animated animals.
