• by Adam Bernard , July 27, 2001

Every week brings a myriad of ad campaign and website launches and it's nearly impossible to keep up with them all. If you missed a few, here are some the major launches of the week that was, and the week that will be.

Fans of "Posh Spice" Victoria Beckham and her soccer-star husband David Beckham can now take a virtual tour of "Beckingham Palace," the couple's rural home. The Spice Girl's official website, launched on Tuesday, features a virtual Victoria who welcomes visitors to the mock-Georgian mansion north of London. Viewers can tour the Throne Room, the bedroom of the Beckhams' toddler son Brooklyn, the "Royal Bathroom," and a book-lined study.

Staying in music, Neil Diamond's website launched this week, coinciding with the release of his new album, titled "Three Chord Opera" on Columbia Records. The stylized, interactive website was designed by New York's FDG, the award-winning concept and design studio.

From music to cars, Mercedes-Benz USA debuted a new television ad to mark the launch of its all-new C230 sports coupe. The television spot will run during programs including West Wing, Frasier, Friends, NYPD Blue, Good Morning America, Spin City and the Tonight Show. The spot will also air on national cable networks including VH1 and Comedy Central. There will also be print advertising in newspapers and auto magazines, along with outdoor advertising.

Bluetorch is continuing its successful "Strange is Good" campaign by providing 12 viewers an opportunity to host its highly rated youth culture program which airs weekdays at 4 p.m. on Fox Sports Net (FSN). Bluetorch is flying 12 finalists in from across the country for the online and on-air contest that will be shot July 28 to Aug. 5. The Bluetorch contest coincides with the Philips U.S. Open of Surfing, America's largest professional surfing competition, held at the Huntington Beach Pier. Bluetorch will house all 12 contestants in a brand new, seven-bedroom home in coastal Orange County. A Bluetorch film crew will shadow the group and tape every second of activity, including any embarrassing moments. Each potential host will be assigned a unique character trait and will have an individual "micro website." The lone winner, as chosen by the online audience, will be judged on how they perform in myriad tests of strangeness, mental bizarreness and camera charisma.

Speaking of strange, specialty retailer Sharper Image is introducing a new Internet promotion that will reward its customers for buying goods from dozens of other e-tailers. San Francisco-based Sharper Image has set up a virtual shopping mall featuring links to more than 80 other merchants, including high-profile names such as Nordstrom, the Gap, Brooks Brothers, Dell Computer and Office Depot. Shoppers who click through Sharper Image's "galleria" and buy something at the participating stores will a receive a credit equal to 5% off their purchase price. The credits can then be applied toward future purchases through Sharper Image's website, catalog business or any of their 99 brick-and-mortar stores.

Zenith Electronics Corporation is launching a nationwide ad campaign with the new tagline, "Zenith: Digitize the Experience." The campaign, representing the company's most significant national advertising presence in 15 years, spotlights Zenith's state-of-the-art digital technology, appealing to a young, affluent audience of trend initiators. The campaign is supported by Zenith's parent company, LG Electronics Inc., which is investing $30 million to promote the LG-produced Zenith brand digital products, which are being launched in the United States in 2001. Leading the charge are two 30-second television ads, created by Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago and directed by noted London-based director Gerard de Thame. The campaign will also have print ads in major entertainment magazines.

"You have the freedom to choose. And now, you have another safe abortion choice." That's the tag line for a new national advertising campaign for the Early Option pill. The ad is in Self, People, and will appear in the August issue of Vanity Fair, Glamour and several other national magazines. Known formally as mifepristone and marketed as the Early Option pill, the practically do-it-yourself alternative to surgical abortion won federal approval 10 months ago. It was developed as RU-486 more than a decade ago in France. The National Abortion Federation, which represents 400 facilities nationwide that provide abortions, is behind the $2 million privately funded ad campaign.

FutureBrand has launched of a new destination for Hispanic teens on the Galavision network. Part of the Univision Networks, Galavision's initiative is to target Hispanic teens through a new teen block named "Latinotudes" that will appear next month on the international Spanish network. Galavision contracted FutureBrand to enhance their current on-air identity providing a point of differentiation from the other Spanish networks appealing to the bi-cultural, Hispanic youth market.

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has redesigned its corporate website to reach investors, job seekers and the broader public in ways best suited to their needs. They teamed with advertising and design firm Eleven, Inc. and web developer Jel Productions to combine appealing looks with functionality. With the redesign complete, anyone who visits the site can now find the information they want -- from catalog requests and corporate background to complete investor communications and job openings. Jel Productions also designed the site so that authorized Williams-Sonoma, Inc. administrative staff can use Microsoft Office-like tools to update site information without knowing any HTML programming.

- Compiled by MediaPost Staff Writer Adam Bernard. To submit a launch announcement, please email adambernard@mediapost.com