Is this a trend? We’ve spotted two well-known retail manufacturers featuring the metalcasting process in their marketing material.

Golf club maker Ping cast its golf club manufacturing operations, including its investment casting facility, in a costarring role in a new television ad alongside professional golfer Lorena Ochoa, who is the number one ranked golfer on the LPGA Tour. You can see the TV ad here. In another ad on the website, Ochoa is reading a letter from a customer in front of wax investment trees.

Ping’s Dolphin Precision Investment Castings, Phoenix, Ariz., which is shown in the advertisement, is in the process of installing two titanium vacuum casting lines in addition to its current investment casting capabilities. It estimates the lines will be in production by Fall 2008.

Rolex also is in the production-in-advertisement game. A marketing video on their website shows shots of molten metal poured into molds as part of the precise process of creating the luxury watches. The video is featured here.