Olympus m:robe - the First Digital Music Player With a Built-in Digital Camera - will be Featured in the Brand's First Super Bowl Commercials Since 1981

Melville, New York, January 6, 2005 - A wild blend of digital music, photographs and extreme alternative dance will appear on the telecast of Super Bowl XXXIX, as Olympus Imaging America Inc. launches m:robe 500, the first digital music player with a built-in digital camera. The Melville, NY company has announced plans to run two 30-second television commercials promoting m:robe on the Super Bowl XXXIX telecast, scheduled for February 6, 2005 on the Fox Television Network.

Olympus m:robe 500 is a portable digital music player unlike any other. It stores and plays as many as 5000 digital songs and also includes a digital camera. With m:robe users can create personalized dynamic "remixes" that blend music and pictures together to, as the Super Bowl commercials' tagline suggests, "Let Your Pictures Groove."

"Olympus is going to the Super Bowl with a couple of edgy and entertaining commercials because it's the perfect place to showcase a category changing idea and our brand's debut in digital music," said Martin Lee, vice president of marketing, Olympus Imaging America. "m:robe is a whole new way to listen to and experience digital music. It empowers you to do things you never thought you could do with digital music and images in one compact device."

Martin Agency Leading Creative Development
The Olympus ads are meant to be as entertaining as the Super Bowl itself. The spots are mini-music videos featuring extraordinary special effects to show that m:robe enables you to do things you never before thought possible.

The advertising campaign was created by The Martin Agency, an Interpublic Group (IPG) company based in Richmond, VA. The Olympus ads are scheduled to run during the first and third quarters of the Super Bowl telecast. This is the first time that Olympus has advertised on the Super Bowl since 1981.

"There is no bigger stage to launch a new product than the Super Bowl and when the world is watching you want to put on a good show. Luckily we had a product that was interesting and entertaining in it's own right," said Sean Riley, senior vice president/creative director, The Martin Agency. "Our goal was to capture the energy and fun of the m:robe, a cool new device that brings music and pictures together in a totally unique way."

m:robe Also to Appear on the Grammy's and in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The Super Bowl commercials are part of a $10 million campaign to launch Olympus m:robe. The campaign begins this week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV, where Olympus is celebrating its new digital music player with a series of live concerts on the trade show floor. Artists from the bands Black Crowes, Cheap Trick and Zebra are performing in the Olympus booth at CES. m:robe will be the featured product at Olympus Fashion Week in NYC from February 4-11. Following the Super Bowl, Olympus plans to run the m:robe commercials on the Grammy Awards telecast in February on the CBS Television Network. The Olympus m:robe will also be supported in a print advertising campaign featured in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and Rolling Stone.

Olympus is advertising on the Super Bowl as part of a marketing strategy that focuses on high-impact sponsorships reaching big audiences and supporting the brand's "Designed to Do More" marketing platform. Olympus owns the title sponsorship of Olympus Fashion Week in New York, is the official camera of the US Open Tennis Tournament and a sponsor of the Ferrari Formula 1 Racing Team and driver Michael Schumacher.

"FOX is pleased to have Olympus join the ranks of advertisers taking advantage of the unprecedented reach and impact that the Super Bowl provides as television's most-watched and highest-rated event of the year," said Jon Nesvig, President, National Advertising Sales, News Corp.

About m:robe 500
The flagship model of the new Olympus m:robe series is m:robe 500, which combines a 20-gigabyte digital music player with a 1.22-megapixel digital camera to create a compact and stylish multimedia device unlike any that's come before it. With a one-of-a-kind "No Button" flat touch-screen interface incorporated into a vibrant 3.7-inch color VGA LCD display, music and digital images spring into action at your fingertips in several dynamic and captivating "remixes," transitions from one image to the next, set to music. Now, both your music and your digital images - the core elements of your self-expression - can conveniently travel anywhere with you.

"Unlike traditional digital music players that only allow you to tune out the rest of the world, the m:robe 500 actually allows you to tune into the world by taking and experiencing your digital images on their own or together in a remix with your personal selection of music," said Keith Swiderski, business development manager, Olympus Imaging America Inc.

"The m:robe 500 reinvents the photo album, altering it from something you leave on a coffee table to something you can take with you and share with others. Whether using images taken by the m:robe 500 itself, or using high-resolution images imported to it and synching them to your music to create a 'remix' slideshow with audio, it delivers an interactive experience that excites the senses."

About Olympus America Inc.
Olympus Imaging America Inc. is a precision technology leader, designing and delivering award-winning products for consumer and professional markets.

Olympus Imaging America works collaboratively with its customers and its parent company, Olympus Corporation, to develop breakthrough technologies with revolutionary product design and functionality that enhances peoples lives every day. These include:

• Digital and film cameras
• Professional SLR Imaging Systems
• Digital and Microcassette recorders
• Digital Music Players
• Personal Photo Printers
• Digital Print Kiosks
• Digital Video Projectors
• Digital Media
• Binoculars