'Weeds' promo looks at history of marijuana

Weeds returns to Showtime for its fifth season on June 8, and as usual, they've got an entertaining hodgepodge of advertising to promote it. After launching the spider-web-themed print campaign back on April 20 (which was, not coincidentally, National Weed Day), the network has now released a pair of new videos: an animated history lesson about marijuana (above) and a "Yes We Cannabis!" faux political spot below. We're still waiting for the more offbeat stuff like the marijuana-scented strips in magazines and the giant bags of pot stapled to billboards. Via @dabitch.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 22, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Nudd, Showtime

Showtime keeps doing the little things right

Once upon a time, we asked if it was time for Showtime to quit charging. Well, now it is—at least briefly. The pay cable network is offering the first episodes of the new seasons of Dexter and Californication free online, two weeks before they hit TV. You can watch either by entering the apt password "Lady Killer." It's another smart move for Showtime, whose Dexter campaign has been getting quite a lot of press. Last month, fake magazine covers starring Dexter himself covered newsstands. Before that, Portugeuse agency Torke Guerrilha (whose Web site is worthy of a click) created some awesome Dexter guerrilla work with blood-flushing urinals, Dexter brand plastic wrap, a dead guy on the street and bloody body parts in a butcher's window. That campaign was limited to Lisbon, but caused a minor U.S. fan frenzy, thanks to the power of the Internets. In all the hubbub, let's not forget Showtime's Californication campaign, which became pure genius the moment Duchovny entered rehab for his sex addiction. Staged or not, how serendipitous! It's also nice to know the network doesn't only pimp out its female stars. Showtime knows what you really want: porn, weed, and violent psychos. Take that, Skinemax!

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

Published on September 19, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Cullers, Showtime

Sex addiction can mess up your advertising

The Showtime series Californication gets this week's prize for most inopportune tagline. Given David Duchovny's trip to rehab for sex addiction, the line "He's in way too deep" could refer more to his troubles than his character's. And considering the nature of the show, some viewers have even been left to wonder if the rehab thing is a PR gambit by Showtime ahead of Californication's second season. (That seems unlikely, but Showtime has posted a video to its YouTube channel titled "Are you addicted to porn?" Though not in reference to Duchovny.) In general, sex addiction is tough to build marketing materials around. But that hasn't stopped the distributors of Choke, an upcoming film about a sex addict, from trying their hardest. To the dismay of some patrons, they've been handing out anal beads at some preview screenings.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on September 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4)
Filed under David Duchovny, Nudd, Showtime

Ralph kills again with second 'Dexter' viral

Last year, a sinister digital campaign for Showtime's Dexter from U.K agency Ralph won our Freakiest Advertising Moment of 2007 contest. The Web site allowed visitors to send custom video news reports to friends, suggesting they were being targeted by a serial killer. Now, Ralph is back with a follow-up: the Dexter Hit List. It doesn’t veer too far from the original — once again, a serial killer is stalking your friends (they must be getting used to it by now), but this time the video shows police talking to the press about it. Last year’s effort took some heat for being a bit too believable. This time, you can add a photo of yourself, and you get presented in the video as a suspect — an extra step that will hopefully convince moms everywhere that they’re not actually in danger.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on July 9, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Nudd, Showtime

Adland sends up Showtime's pinup banners

Dabitch, the proprietress of mother-of-all-ad-blogs Adland, is unimpressed by Showtime's new ads for Weeds—pinup pics of Mary-Louise Parker that are being packaged together with similar (and more appropriate) ads for Secret Diary of a Call Girl. But she seems to identify with her tormenters, as she’s whipped up her own homage to the campaign. “Seems that the right thing to do in order to sell anything is pose sexy,” she writes. “I should have tattoed Adland’s URL on my chest years ago and tried to pose for Playboy to generate some buzz.” Our 370-pixel column width doesn’t do it justice, so click over for the full effect.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on June 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Filed under Ad blogs, Nudd, Showtime

‘Dexter’ campaign gets away with murder

It’s not just kids who are freaked out by Showtime’s advertising for Dexter, the program about a forensics expert who moonlights as a serial killer. A new viral campaign is scaring the bejeezus out of plenty of adults. Those with a macabre sense of humor should visit SliceoflifeTV.com, where you can enter a friend’s name and a few other details. Soon enough, the friend gets an e-mail link to a video news report that makes it look like he or she has been targeted by a serial killer. Of course, the most successful virals are often the ones that either humiliate or terrify (see the old Ring Two viral from the U.K.). For the easily gullible, this Dexter effort more than fits the bill, as New York Times ad writer Louise Story found out when she sent it to a few friends and family (some of whom may have stopped speaking to her). The campaign was produced by London-based digital agency Ralph, which happily reports that in the U.K. it “proved so controversial that Ralph received calls of complaint from the public and London’s Scotland Yard Police.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

UPDATE: David Gianatasio chimes in: “OMG. I got one of these e-mails, but I thought it was saying there’s a serial killer out there who has my name. I’m like, ‘David Gianatasio,’ spelled exactly the same, what are the odds!? I’m all like, ‘Now, when people Google me, they’ll think I write for AdFreak and I’m a serial killer.’ Then I thought...which is worse? Which!?”

Published on October 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (13)
Filed under Showtime

R-rated ads spicing up WaPo’s kids section

A good place not to run Showtime’s blood-spattered Dexter ads: in a special newspaper section for children. The Washington Post ignored that rule, and got an earful from its ombudsman. Then again, these kids have seen it all, having previously enjoyed a body lotion ad with a naked woman in the same section. And they say newspapers can’t sell ads anymore.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on October 9, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Showtime

New Showtime promo doesn’t mince words

Except for viewers, Showtime’s original series have it all: sex, beheadings, David Duchovny and loads of profanity. That’s the impression one gets from the new two-minute Showtime promo posted above. If nothing else, the video affirms beyond any doubt the pay cable network’s love of the word “shit.” Every character in the promo seems required to say “holy shit”; the background music is a song called “Holy Shit” by Centralia (“Holy, holy shit/We’ve got the world by the tit”); and the snappy on-screen slogan at the end reads, “Showtime original series. The best shit on television.” It’s a real shitstorm. By the end, you wonder whether the video really is, as the disclaimer says, “intended for a mature audience.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on September 4, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Showtime

Is it time for Showtime to quit charging?

With so many original hit shows on Showtime these days, it’s hard to remember the premium channel’s 1990s tagline, “Nothing but RoboCop and soft-core skin flicks.” OK, so maybe they never came right out and admitted it like that, but the fact remains that Showtime has pulled off an impressive evolution into the best paid channel that no one’s watching. Public-radio icon Ira Glass recently said fans constantly tell him they would watch the TV version of This American Life, if only they subscribed to Showtime. (The series is now available on iTunes for $1.99 an episode.) And this week, Showtime stopped just short of celebrating when new episodes of Weeds turned up on illegal file-sharing sites. “I’m excited it’s out there,” says Weeds creator Jenji Kohan. “Showtime is great, but it does have a limited audience.” So will Showtime’s success end up destroying its own ad-free model? Maybe there could be a Showtime Lite that’s free for cable subscribers. The network could retain its core audience by continuing to charge for shows like Catfight Bordello 2: Clash of the Cream Corn Vixens. Until then, I approve of their interim plan: ads featuring Mary-Louise Parker and Fox Mulder, nekkid and eatin’ apples.

—Posted by David Griner

Published on August 6, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Filed under Griner, Showtime

Stoners love ‘Weeds’ ad’s giant bag of pot

Here in the U.S., the hit show Weeds has been advertised with marijuana-scented strips in magazines. In New Zealand, they chose something a bit more grandiose: a giant bag of pot (actually faux-pot) stapled to a billboard. Naturally, this caused local stoners to look up temporarily from their bongs. And in some cases, to take misguided action. The Spare Room blog points us to the video above, in which security cameras show people trying to make off with big handfuls of grass from the billboard. Of course, the whole thing could be (and probably was) staged. In any case, they are offering a reward of a whopping $420 for the return of the “missing buds.” You may be better off trying to find Elvis.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on August 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Filed under Showtime

Showtime's definition of a year's worth of ice cream may not be yours

Although ice cream season seems like it should be summer, the Showtime network has a new promotion that would work any time of year: free Haagen-Dazs for a year when you subscribe, starting in October. Unfortunately a years’ worth of ice cream to Showtime is just 12 pints, or one pint a month. In normal households, this definition might fit,  but not those with roommates supposedly on a diet who have a pint-a-day habit or whose stoned houseguests help themselves to whatever’s in the freezer (but I am not naming names, THOMAS). But I digress. The new subscribers must present three monthly cable or satellite bills to earn their coupon book for the 12 pints of Haagen-Dazs. While we’re on the subject, don’t go to Europe and ask for a tour of the Haagen-Dazs factory anywhere: it was invented by a guy named Reuben in New York, who just wanted it to sound foreign and exotic.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on July 18, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Häagen-Dazs, Showtime