[PollitowuzHere]

yeah, I also saw the the big front picture of the K20D magazine/book Will says. That actually caught my eye, and I read through the magazine. It was pretty complete, although too pricy right now.

[jmeelo]

This ad's been circulating all over the Greater Toronto area for almost 3 years now. It was even on one of those highway bill boards along the DVP. Maybe it's still there but I haven't been on the DVP for awhile.

[janosh]

To the extent that Pentax is Vietnam-built (pancake lenses), its price will rise vs dollar if dollar doesn't rise.

Vietnam isn't like China, whose currency is nearly perfectly pegged to the dollar...Chinese goods depend on US market, so China doesn't want the yuan to strengthen vs dollar (which would make Walmart goods more expensive in the US).

Vietnamese currency is more likely to remain stable vs Euro and Yen, rise vs dollar (able because it's free floating, like Euro) therefore Europe's where Pentax is placing its advertising bets...not in US. Even Canada's historically dubious dollar is rising vs US dollar, so it makes sense to advertise there more than in the US.

Japan is a bizarre financial mess, may be getting worse, so it's risky to manufacture there. Vietnam is on the way up as an economy, like Europe has been in the recent past...therefore Vietnam's a smart place to manufacture for that market....maybe the smartest possible place.

[Edicon]

Just saw the same ad this weekend @ a mall in Scarborough, Ontario.

Saw the same ads in probably 5 different locations inside square1 mall in Mississauga, Ontario.

[Ash]

Pentax had a cheeky, full page ad in Details magazine (don't recall the issue) showing a martini falling onto the K20 body to tout the weather sealing. Prett clever and well targeted I thought.

Oh yes.
That ad's been in mags in Australia as well.
The marketing is happening at this level, just not filtering down to the retail stores around here...

[cpopham]

That ad's been in mags in Australia as well.
The marketing is happening at this level, just not filtering down to the retail stores around here...

No ads that I've noticed (not that I buy photographic magazines anyway) but the K20 recently showed up in JB Hifi stores locally...

[artobest]

They've run full-page ads for both the K20D and the K200D in the Guardian (UK) Weekend magazine recently. If that's not aggressive, then I don't know what is.

[take]

I saw this ad in Popular Science US, May 2008.