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Associations join together,
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by Mike Shaw
The three industry associations that
have jointly hired the Daniel J.
Edelman public relations firm to
come up with industry image
enhancing concepts have approved
in substance the first effort of the
firm to help the industry. The effort is
entitled A Community Relations
Manual.
The 100 page booklet is aimed at
people within the industry and offers
suggestions on dealing with com·
munity-oriented problems. A special
chapter is devoted to dealing with
the news media for positive publicity.
The three associations involved
with the effort are the Amusement
Device Manufacturers Association,
the Amusement and Music Oper-
ators Association, and the Amuse-
ment and Vending Machine Distri-
butors Association.
Although the three are as one in
support of the manual's publication,
the second step of the industry
image improvement campaign is
encountering some resistance.
Paul Huebsch of ADMA says he is
frustrated by the lack of cooperation.
"There is just not the common
concurrence that there actually
should be," Huebsch told Play
Meter.
As a result, offers Huebsch,
ADMA may have to bear the entire
financial burden for phase two of the
promotional campaign. Phase two is
aimed at the public, a campaign that
industry observers generally believe
is sorely needed. The price tag for
the Daniel J. Edelman plan is about
$225,000.
Huebsch says there are too many
conflicting views on how to accom-
plish the public relations task, and
that it has been so difficult to get
things worked out that if he had to
start all over again, he would not
pursue it. He proposes that there is
not enough recognition that the
public relations problem for the
industry is very much with us.
PLAY METER , May 1, 1982
ADMA is composed of many of
the major manufacturers but there
are still some holdouts from the
association, including most notably
Bally/ Midway and Rowe.
Although Heubsch says some
firms do not want to participate
because they are not directly
involved with video games, he
contends that distributing arms of
those firms are profiting off the popu-
larity of the games and that they
should be concerned about an indus-
try movement against the negative
publicity which has become so
rampant.
II
Officers of major manufacturing firms congregate at ADMA to deal with industry
wide problems.
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