CHICAGO SUN-TIMES COVERS FROG AND TRUE NORTH AT OSCARS

February 19, 2009 

LEWIS LAZARE Media & Marketing columnist; llazare@suntimes.com

They say the Oscars are Hollywood's biggest night. Well, when the Oscar statuettes are handed out on Sunday in front of a national television audience numbering in the tens of millions, it also will be a big evening indeed for Chicago's very own Lisa Nigro. She and the Inspiration Cafe she founded will be the subject of a 60-second, documentary-style commercial from the Strawberry Frog agency for True North nut snacks. True North, a unit of the giant Frito-Lay snack food company, was launched less than a year ago, and the newish company wanted a major platform like the Academy Awards to introduce the brand to a large, heavily baby boomer audience.

Nigro and the story of her cafe, which serves meals to the homeless in a restaurant-style setting on the city's North Side, were chosen as the subject of True North's major Oscar telecast commercial from among more than 2,300 responses to a promotion that called for the public to submit stories of people pursuing their passions and making the world a better place in the process.

To add an extra layer of interest to the making of the Nigro commercial, True North and Strawberry Frog executives tapped Academy Award-winning actress Helen Hunt to direct this special Oscar TV spot. Why Hunt? First, Hunt is a boomer and part of the True North brand's target demographic. Plus, Hunt zealously pursued her own dream to direct a feature film -- a goal she finally realized a couple of years ago with the release of "Then She Found Me."

It would be nice to report all went swimmingly with the filming of the True North spot. But because of the way the promotion was set up, the three-day location shoot couldn't be scheduled until mid-January, when temperatures were hovering around zero in the Windy City.

So when Chicagoans see the finished commercial's world premiere Sunday night, they will be able to fully appreciate what all involved had to endure to capture one wonderful shot of a bundled-up Nigro standing on a very snowy, icy North Street Beach. It is but one of a number of pleasing visuals in the True North spot that -- all together -- give a very heartwarming account of Nigro's saga.

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