• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, September 17, 2003

Ford launches a massive campaign for its F-150 truck. The Pittsburgh Penguins get a jump-start on the upcoming season. BAM! Emeril launches Whitening Expressions for Crest. Welcome to highlights of ad campaigns launched this week.

PRIMEDIA was awarded an advertising and marketing contract from Ford Motor Company for the launch of the 2004 Ford F-150 pickup, and they have wasted no time in getting started. As part of their campaign, Ford will advertise in print and online platforms of PRIMEDIA titles, including Motor Trend, Truck Trend, Automobile,Hot Rod, Four Wheeler, Truckin', Stock Car Racing, Circle Track, Hunting, Guns & Ammo and In Fisherman. Ford's campaign will include more than 100 advertising pages across all magazine groups, and PRIMEDIA will also produce print gatefold units and F-150 custom display trucks that will be displayed at selected Motor Trend auto shows throughout 2003 and 2004. PRIMEDIA collaborated with Ford and J. Walter Thompson, Ford's agency of record, in creating the campaign.

He shoots, He Scores! The Pittsburgh Penguins have launched a multimedia campaign in an effort to increase excitement, and more importantly, ticket sales for the upcoming hockey season. The campaign launched on Sept. 1 using Outdoor and transit posters and will also include a season long television and radio campaign. TV spots will appear regionally on FOX Sports Net and other local affiliates. A total of nine TV spots will be in rotation. The campaign, developed by Giant Ideas, will continue to run during the playoffs, should Pittsburgh make it in (insert fans keeping fingers crossed, here). After the first four weeks of the campaign, there will also be a bus-card transit campaign in effect.

BAM! I like my teeth to be white and toothpaste to be flavorful! Crest has chosen sassy chef Emeril Lagasse to appear in a TV campaign launching Crest Whitening Expressions, a line of flavored whitening toothpastes. Crest Whitening Expressions is a whitening toothpaste that comes in three flavors: Cinnamon Rush, Extreme Herbal Mint, a combination of natural mint with herbal extracts, and Fresh Citrus Breeze. The advertising, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, debuted in September.

TVA Productions was recently selected by Viseon, a global developer and provider of broadband personal video communications solutions, to develop and launch a multi-media campaign for the company's new VisiFone. The VisiFone is a self-contained broadband videophone that does not require a PC or any external equipment, and provides free video and audio calls on any broadband connection and home or office network. To support the launch, ads will run on TV, radio, print media, and airline in-flight programs.

Canadian beer Labatt Blue is prepping for the holiday season by debuting "Labatt Blue Celebration Bottle," a limited edition Canadian pilsner beer. The bottle has a holiday design, gold-foil-wrapped neck, and cork-and-bail closure, and will be available in November and December in selected markets. The beer, first brewed in 1951, is the #3 imported beer in the United States. To support the launch, ads for the new bottle will appear POS in selected stores in-market. Canadian design firm Backwell Design created the bottle.

The Advertising Council and the National WIC (Woman, Infants and Children) Association have launched a public-service campaign designed to generate awareness of the WIC program and communicate its benefits to families who are in need of assistance. WIC provides nutrition and healthcare services as well as supplementary foods to more than 7.55 million women and children - including nearly half of all infants in America, and one-quarter of all children between one and four years of age. Created pro bono by Gotham, the TV, radio and outdoor PSAs illustrate how WIC can make a difference to families at risk. The ads target both women with small children and pregnant or nursing mothers who may be eligible to receive WIC's services.

Union Editorial and davidandgoliath, L.A. have collaborated to create "Contagious," a 60-second spot for the Starlight Children's Foundation. The spot highlights the healing effect laughter has on terminally ill children. "Contagious" opens in a children's hospital, as a series of images of somber-faced children courageously facing the camera-flash onscreen. Speaking of the children featured in the ads, a wheelchair-bound child says: "Each year, almost a million kids are affected by it." "It's an epidemic without a cure," says a young doctor. The camera then cuts to a volunteer from the Starlight Children's Foundation facing the audience. As the camera pans across the smiling children, the foundation's end graphics, "Laughter is contagious. Let's keep it going" and end-tag, "Brightening the lives of seriously ill children" closes out the spot.

In website launches this week:

Coinciding with students going back to school, Abebooks, an online marketplace for used, rare and out-of-print books, launched Textbook Central, a new area on its website created specifically for students and textbook buyers. The new area features a contest for students to win $2000 each semester to help pay their tuition. Winners are drawn twice a year from all students who have purchased books on the site. Abebooks.com/Textbooks provides students with easy access to the Abebooks database of over 45 million used books, which are listed by 11,000 independent booksellers. The database includes millions of secondhand textbooks, reference books, literature, poetry, study guides, and nearly new bestsellers. Other benefits of Textbook Central include a student-focused "wants list," where students can enter the name of a book they need and Abebooks will email them when it's available.

White Horse of Portland, Oregon has redesigned a website for Xcel Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on the treatment of disorders of the central nervous system. The company's goal is to raise awareness for its Diastat seizure treatment by educating the product's two primary audience segments: patients and their caregivers; and physicians, with both online efforts on the website and cross-channel tactics such as downloadable coupons. Diastat.com enables both healthcare consumers and physicians to learn more about the medication and its efficacy, safety, and convenience.