Canon Mobile Marketing Vehicle Docks At Riverfest `99; Showroom On Wheels Offers Interactive Product Displays, Helps Support Missing Children Initiative.

HARTFORD and EAST HARTFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 1, 1999--

Canon U.S.A. is giving greater Hartford-area residents yet another reason to attend the twentieth annual Riverfest '99: high-tech demonstrations and the chance to win free tickets to the Canon Greater Hartford Open golf tournament later this month.

Visitors are also invited to stop by Canon's postcard station to have their digital picture taken with the Canon Optura. These digital photos can then be emailed to friends and family or printed on a Canon BJC-6000 and taken home as a souvenir.

Riverfest '99, presented by Mohegan Sun and produced by Riverfront Recapture, marks the latest stop on a nationwide tour for Canon's new 18-wheel, 53-foot-long mobile marketing vehicle. Offering free interactive demonstrations of Canon products through `touch and try' stations, the vehicle showcases Canon cameras and digital video camcorders, copiers, printers, scanners, and multifunction devices.

"We're so pleased that Canon is visiting our festival to demonstrate its leading technology solutions," said the festival's director, Kristin Beth Ferris. "Our audience will really enjoy participating in their demos and signing up for the free giveaways. We know the Canon mobile marketing vehicle will generate excitement for the festival and add to visitors' enjoyment of the event."

Canon's mobile marketing vehicle will be at the festival from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. on July 3. Riverfest attracts over 275,000 visitors with free activities that include fireworks, food, music, and children's activities.

In addition to getting hands-on experience with a wide variety of Canon products, visitors can:

- Register to win free tickets to the Canon Greater Hartford Open

- Send a digital postcard via the Internet or print out a souvenir

copy

- Receive a digital I.D. photo of their child to be used by police

for scan-and-match purposes with the National Center for Missing

and Exploited Children (NCMEC)

- Learn about Canon's environmental initiatives with the National

Park Foundation and The Nature Conservancy, and Canon's support

of various philanthropies, such as the March of Dimes 

- Receive a souvenir lanyard and I.D. card

In May, the vehicle visited the educational assembly held by Canon and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to commemorate National Missing Children's Day. Canon's digital technologies are helping to support NCMEC's "Picture Them Home" campaign by enabling children who visit the truck's photography studio to have their pictures taken and printed as identification photos. These IDs should be held by parents and used only if their child is reported missing.

"Canon's mobile marketing vehicle will enable us to build brand awareness for our leading solutions while spotlighting some of the charitable causes the company supports," said Tim Andree, vice president and general manager of Corporate Communications at Canon U.S.A.

Canon U.S.A. has donated scanners, printers and digital cameras to police stations in 33 cities; with these solutions, police are able to disseminate information about missing children more quickly than ever before.

Canon U.S.A., Inc. is an industry leader in professional and consumer imaging solutions and, through its parent company, Canon Inc., is a top patent-holder of imaging technologies. The company's comprehensive product line includes networked multifunction devices; digital and analog copiers (color and black and white); printers, scanners, image filing systems, and facsimile machines; camcorders, cameras and lenses; and semiconductor, broadcast and medical equipment. Canon employs 12,000 people at more than 30 facilities throughout North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.

All referenced product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Canon U.S.A. Website: http://www.usa.canon.com