Panda Goes Public, Revs Marketing Machine

Link: Wired News: Panda Goes Public, Revs Marketing Machine

The public has logged more than 7 million hits on the zoo's "panda cam" Web site, and sales of zoo merchandise have increased by 50 percent. Sales of online merchandise last month alone totaled $27,000 _ compared with $24,000 for all of 2004.

"We've added about 30 new panda items since Tai Shan was born in July," said Matt Olear, a spokesman for the Friends of the National Zoo, which operates concessions at the zoo. Under the loan agreement which brought adult pandas Mei Xiang and her mate Tian Tian to the U.S. from China five years ago, all proceeds from panda merchandise sales must be used for conservation, research and education programs.