Casper Turns 60!

For Immediate Release
Contact: David Bowers 310-444-4150
THE HARVEY ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY LAUNCHES
MAJOR NATIONAL CONSUMER AND MULTI-MEDIA
CAMPAIGN TO CELEBRATE CASPER'S 60TH BIRTHDAY!

The Harvey Entertainment Company is launching its first-ever, national multi-media consumer campaign to celebrate Casper, the Friendly Ghost's 60th birthday (October 30, 2000). The campaign will utilize the Internet, television, radio and print to mark the event, culminating in a huge birthday bash/premier October 28, at the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, California.

The campaign includes an all new, all CGI animated feature film "Casper's Haunted Christmas" being released by Universal Home Video in the U.S. October 31, and by Carlton Video in the U.K.; over 16 targeted web site promotional partners; two major national retail promotional partners (Baskin Robbins & Orange Julius/Dairy Queen); a major charity tie-in, "Sight for Students" which will distribute over 60,000 pair of eyeglasses to needy children through ophthalmologist's offices nationwide; a soundtrack featuring songs from country star Randy Travis; national television appearances by Casper and Randy Travis; promotional contests with local television stations and the Cartoon Network in the top 50 markets; a cable network special; a proclamation from the City of Los Angeles proclaiming "Casper Day"; and over $3 million in television and radio advertising.

Rick Mischel, President of The Harvey Entertainment Company said, "This is the most comprehensive and ambitious campaign Harvey has ever

launched for any Harvey personality. We will be reaching out to moms, dads and kids through every communications medium introducing Casper to a whole new generation, and re-introducing Casper to the generations before who grew up watching him. This campaign will bring massive exposure and sales opportunities for all of our licensing and production partners."

Casper's Charity--Sight for Students
To help celebrate Casper's birthday, Harvey and Sight for Students, a non-profit charity, have teamed up to distribute over 60,000 pairs of eyeglasses to kids across the country who are neither covered by insurance, or do not qualify for government assistance such as Medi-Care. Each participating child receives a free eye exam through a local ophthalmologist, free eyeglasses, free eye cases and free follow up exams. Over 15,000 counter cards and posters will be distributed to doctor's offices, boys and girls clubs and schools across the country featuring Casper and the tag line "Everyone wants to see Casper!" To create even more awareness for the program, Harvey is putting a Public Service Announcement for Sight for Students at the front of over 1 million "Casper's Haunted Christmas" videos.

Internet Partners
During the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November kids will be able to visit their favorite web site and see behind-the-scenes footage of "Casper's Haunted Christmas", the newest Casper adventure being released by Universal Home Video October 31. Harvey's Internet partners include funschool.com, sittingcow.com, liveonthenet.com, ilooks.com, bonus.com, claus.com, spunkytown.com, chello.com, aplusmath.com, lycoskids.com, excite@home, familynetwork, okidoki.com, metv.com, vidnetusa.com, stupid.com. In addition, Harvey is producing a flash-based Internet game with Sarbakan Entertainment, a critically acclaimed online game producer. The game will feature characters from the movie and will be freely distributed online.

On all Internet promotional partner sites, kids will be able to win valuable prize packages on the sites such as Skooters, t-shirts and caps. Interested kids and parents will be able to chat live, on-line, with Sid Jacobsen, the editor of all Casper's comic books and the historical archivist of Harvey. He's also the creator of Richie Rich.

National Retail Promotional Partners
Harvey is delighted to celebrate Casper's birthday with Orange Julius/Dairy Queen and Baskin Robbins. During the month of October, Orange Julius/Dairy Queen will be distributing over 5 million Casper and Ghostly Trio toys in their kids meals at over "1200" locations.

Baskin Robbins has created an entire new flavor of ice cream, "Chiller Thriller" to be sold at all of their 2,600 retail outlets with counter cards and colorful signage promoting Casper. They will also be placing a coupon for ice cream inside every videocassette of "Casper's Haunted Christmas."

Both Baskin Robbins and Orange Julius will be at Casper's birthday bash supplying over 600 kids with lunch and desert October 28 at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

National Television Appearances
Country singing star Randy Travis, who sings Casper's theme song on the all-new video "Casper's Haunted Christmas" will be making television appearances with Casper on major network programs. Casper is scheduled to appear by himself on several major market morning shows. Not bad for a ghost who's been around 60 years!

Television Promotions
In all 50 major markets Casper is tie-ing in with local television stations promoting Casper's birthday and his new video "Casper's Haunted Christmas" through local coloring and essay contests sponsored by the number one kids television station in each market. Kids can win a bevy of prizes from scooters to t-shirts to a library of Harvey videos.

Etc. Etc.
The "Casper's Haunted Christmas" soundtrack will be released October 31 with songs from several county music stars, and of course Randy Travis singing the Casper theme song!

The City of Los Angeles will proclaim October 30 as "Casper Day" in LA!

And to top it all off, the USA Network will air "Casper's Haunted Christmas" as an exclusive holiday special.

THIS IS GOING TO BE THE MOST BOOTIFUL CASPER BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER!

History of Casper
Casper, the friendly Ghost was created by Seymour Reit and illustrated by Joseph Oriolo. In 1945, Casper made his first appearance when Paramount released the film short "The Friendly Ghost". Casper re-appeared when Paramount released two additional film shorts "There's Good Boos Tonight" in 1948 and "A Haunting We will Go" in 1949. In 1959 as Casper gained tremendous popularity, Paramount expanded the cartoons into an entire television series. Casper quickly became one of the most celebrated cartoon characters on earth. In December of 1952, Harvey became the sole publisher of Casper comic books. In 1991 the original Casper cartoon shorts were re-dubbed, re-edited, and re-colored. Sixty-five episodes of "Casper and Friends" were aired throughout the country to a new generation of children whose parents also grew up watching Casper. In 1995 Steven Spielberg brought "Casper" to the world as a feature length, live-action film and in '97 and '98, two new direct-to-video Casper features sold nearly 5 million units. Overall, the Casper franchise has scared up an otherworldly $1 billion in revenues....in the 1990's alone!

Casper Storyline/ "Casper's Haunted Christmas"
Virtually all Casper cartoons are based on the same premise, Casper tries to make friends with some animals or people who scream "A g-g-ghost!" and run off. The lonely little ghost finally manages to befriend some child or young animal that ultimately enables Casper to prove he really is a good friend.

In "Casper's Haunted Christmas" Kibosh, the supreme ruler of all ghosts, orders him to scare at least one person before Christmas day. But kindhearted Casper doesn't want to scare anyone; so the Ghostly Trio secretly hires Casper's look-alike cousin, Spooky, to do the job--with hilarious results.

Casper and Family
Casper lives with the Ghostly Trio, an incorrigible group of ghosts who thrive on scaring people. The Trio is always belittling Casper for being a "friendly" ghost and they constantly try to make him into a mean ghost. Of course, it never works because Casper is a good-natured spook always willing to lend a helping hand. One of Casper'' greatest fans is his girlfriend, Wendy, the Good Little Witch. Together they live a happy virtuous life while teaching the children of the world to have kindness and compassion for others.

Harvey Entertainment
The Harvey Entertainment Company is a diversified entertainment company engaged in the management and exploitation of branded characters through merchandising, licensing and all entertainment media. Harvey has an entertainment library consisting of over 150 motion pictures and 165 television episodes, including 91 episodes of Harvey classic animation. The Harvey Classic Character brands include hundreds of characters such as Casper, the Friendly Ghost, Richie Rich, the Ghostly Trio, Little Audrey, Herman and Katnip, Wendy the Witch and many others. For further information regarding The Harvey Entertainment Company, visit the Company' web site at www.harvey.com.