Calendar News - January 2004

Their ticket to stardom? TV star Jennifer O'Dell with a Jesse James West Coast Choppers classic were photographed in 1997 by Jim Gianatsis for the Mikuni 1998 Iron & Lace calendar.

Where Are They Now?
FastDates.com Calendar icons Jennifer O'Dell and Jesse James.
Jan 15th: Here's proof postive that being featured in the FastDates.com calendars is the stepping stone to boosting a model and bike builder's career on the way to fame and fortune. Pictured above was young 19 year old Los Angeles model Jennifer O'Dell with a custom bike from an up and coming bike builder named
Jesse James, both photographed by Jim Gianatsis for the 1998 Mikuni sponsored Iron & Lace Calendar.
And where are they now, you ask?

Well the outlaw kid who was beggin' us to photograph his bikes back in 1998 for the Mikuni sponsored Iron & Lace calendar, and who spent the afternoon of our photo shoot with Jennifer chuckin' rocks and breaking glass bottles perched on the wooden posts in the photo backgound, is now the hottest celebrity custom bike builder in America. Jesse's TV show Monster Garage on the Discovery Channel has turned bad boy Jesse into a millionaire and his West Coast Choppers iron cross bike shop logo into media icons, just like Paris Hilton and her Von Dutch baseball cap.

The spotlight and the money have fueled Jesse's bad boy image and reckless lifestyle even more. Jesse's obsession centers on attitude, fast cars and bikes, and even faster women. Jesse was divorced by his first wife a few years back for playing the field, then more recently remarried porn star Jannine Lindemulder. That marriage recently endeding after just 12 months, but not before Jannine had copied Jesse's full body biker tattoos all over her body, esentially ending her nude adult movie and modeling career. And she was also pregnant when Jesse drop kicked her to the curb. Hopefully Jannine had a good pre nuptual agreement with Jesse before she ruined her life. Latest rumors have Jesse dating actress Sandra Bullock.

Gianatsis Design launches exciting,
sexy new Advertising Campaign for Mikuni American
January 20, 2004: Mikuni American, manufacturer of the industry leading Mikuni HSR 42/45/48 Performance Carburetors for the American V-Twin market and sponsor of the Iron & Lace Calendar, is kicking off an exciting and sexy new advertsing campaign in 2004. The advertising campaign is being produced by Gianatsis Design Associates, Mikuni's contracted advertsing agency and publisher of the Iron & Lace Calendar.

Mikun'si Vice President of marketing Lee Chapin explains the radical new advertising approach for the otherwise conservative Japanese fuel induction manufacturer which supplies many of the origional equipment carburetor and fuel injection systems and components found on vehicles from many of the world's top motorcycle and automobile manufacturers."Since the introduction of the HSR smoothbore carburetor line back in the 1980's, Mikuni has relied on a straight product shot of the carb with a lot of descriptive text to let the consumer about the exclusive performance features and advantages our HSR carburetors offers in the aftermarket compared to stock and our competitiors' products. Now, some 15 years later that original advertsing concept combined together with other marketing programs like our appearance at major consumer and dealer events, and our sponsorship of the Iron & Lace Calendar featuring many of America's top custom bike builders using Mikuni HSR carburetors, Mikuni has successfully established itself as the leading name and performance carburetor in the V-twin market worldwide.

"We felt it was time for a fresh new approach towards marketing the HSR carb, one that was completely new to the industry and hadn't been done before. Because of our name recognition in the motorcycle industry we felt an image ad featuring just a photogrqaph with minimal text was the way to go. Together with our advertising agency Gianatsis Design we discussed numerous images concepts, nome of which really grabed us.

One day I was on the phone to Jim Gianatsis and we were again discussing potential ad concepts and were coming up dry. Then Jim mentioned one of his favotite new music CD's was Liz Phair which featured a picture of Liz on the CD cover, sitting on the floor behind her guitar in a very sexual pose. We then though why not have a sexy model hold the HSR carburetor! But the carburetor would be too small when held by a model, and how would youru dress her? Which led us to the idea of having the HSR carb placed on a V-twin motor with the model placed behind the motor, hugging it, just like Liz was hugging her guitar on her CD. The motor would be large enough that the model could be nude behind it without anything being revealed, and with minimal or no copy in the ad it would really grab people's attention and make them try to figure out what the ad was all about. Jim made up an ad composite of the idea, it looked great, and the ad campaign concept was approved by Mikuni American management."

Next came the ad photo shoot. We wanted to mount the HSR carb on a stock Harely engine because stock bike owners are the biggest buyers for the Mikuni HSR which really does provides a huge 15-25% performance increase on a stock Harley engine. We borrowed a Twin Cam 88 crate motor from Bartel's Harley-Davidson in Marina Del Ray, CA, for the day of our shoot.We originally booked Iron & Lace calendar model and adult film star Jessica Drake with her long blond hair to be our nude model posing behind the motor. But when the day of the shoot came and Jessica called to tell us she couldn't make it, and with the client / motor / make-up artiast all waiting. photographer Jim Gianatsis was thrown into a panic phoning every model in his address book with no luck. After an hour of no returned calls, Jim phoned the Brand Model and Talent Agency in Santa Fe Springs, CA, with a desperate plea to find him a top model at any price for the Mikuni shoot. Brand said they had just one model they could send over without notice, a new girl named Andra Cobb who might match what Jim was looking for. Andra was booked, sight unseen, and arrived 2 hours later for the shoot.

Andrea Cobb proved to be one of the most beautiful, and the nicest models Jim Gianatsis has ever worked with. The shoot came out incredible, Lee Chain was estatic, and the new 2004 Mikuni HSR ad campaign photos were in the can and wrapped in less than 2 hours. Look for the new Gianatsis Design produced Mikuni campaign featuring Andra Cobb in Hot Bike, American Rider and Iron Works magazines in the coming months.

And needless to say, Andra was quickly rebooked by Jim to be featured in the upcoming 2005 Iron & Lace Calendar togther with the awesome new Confederate / By design concept bike Wraith. You can also see a lot more of beautiful Andra in the coming weeks in Meet The Models and Members Corner.

For more information on Gianatsis Design Associates advertising, photography and marketing services for your company go HERE.

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