Cause Marketing

Most ballet companies in the United States balance their books each year based in large measure on how well their performances of The Nutcracker go each December. And for that they owe no small debt of gratitude to Willam Christiansen , who founded the San Francisco Ballet in 1933 and the forerunner of Ballet West in Salt Lake City in 1963. Christensen was also the first American to choreograph and mount a full-length version of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker in the United States, although the great Russian choreographer George Balanchine had choreographed it in Europe years before. So a ballet company would certainly welcome a little extra publicity during The Nutcracker season. At least that’s one way to read this ad from a local Audi dealer that began its run in the Salt Lake City newspapers before Christmas and featured Ballet West’s Principal Ballerina Christiana Bennett and Soloist Haley Henderson Smith in costume. The copy at the bottom of the ad tells us that Strong Audi is the ...