The Eye: Star mule hits the big time

A star is born

Attention of the world may be centered right now on former Fort Collins resident Jake Lloyd, known to billions now as the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, but The Eye has learned that Northern Colorado has another budding star.

So what if it’s a mule.

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The Eye’s spies tell us that Lucky Three Ciji, a 16-year-old mule from Loveland, is appearing in a series of spots with Columbian coffee character Juan Valdez. The national magazine and newspaper advertisements will benefit the Columbian Relief Effort.

Lucky Three Ciji is owned by Meredith Hodges, president of The Lucky Three Ranch Inc. of Loveland. Maury Willman, owner of Willman Productions Inc., which handles public relations efforts for Hodges’ mule-training books, videos and television programming, learned of a casting call for the ads.

It wasn’t your typical search for talent, however. The people behind the ads were searching for “a charismatic animal who could project a depressed appearance.” [Reminds The Eye of some reporters we know, minus the “charismatic” part.]

Enter Lucky Three Ciji, who, by the way, is no stranger to fame. The mule has appeared in The Discover Channel’s special on horses, as well as a series of videos and TV programs.

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It’s all in a name.

Don’t accuse the residents of Brush of giving a good marketing opportunity the brush-off. Seems that residents of the Eastern Plains community signed on with Braun Oral-B recently to demonstrate the efficacy of power-assisted brushing.

The residents spent this past Easter working with Braun to highlight the benefits of power brushing by forming the “world’s first living power toothbrush.” The event coincided with release of a compelling new national study among dental professionals that proves the advantages of using a power-assisted toothbrush.

Brush has done this sort of thing before. Back in 1995, local school children formed the world’s largest living manual toothbrush in the local football stadium.

This time around, 1,200 Brush residents joined to form a power-assisted toothbrush. Will any other community ever duplicate the feat? Brush residents would bristle at the thought.