• by September 17, 2004

Today Tyson Foods, the chicken and TV dinner people, announced a cross-promotional integrated marketing deal with Viacom. The deal, engineered by Tyson's media agency Havas' MPG, will focus on the theme of the company's ad campaign - "Powered by Tyson," created by MPG sibling Arnold Worldwide.

If you never thought chicken could be funny, think again.

Apparently, Tyson products will be integrated into the third season of CBS comedy "Still Standing" on Monday nights. Tyson products will show up in "expected and unexpected" places, according to an MPG executive, commenting in a press release.

But the chickens won't be limited to comedy. Product integration is planned on CBS' long-running soap opera "As the World Turns;" can you imagine? Tyson will also sponsor selected segments on CBS' "The Early Show;" now that makes a little more sense.

Tyson's also getting four on-air 10-second enhanced billboards; rotating placement on the "Early Show" home page and Web site, CBSNews.com home page and Web site, and cross-promotional units on CBS.com's daytime programming Web site. That all amounts to 3.2 million guaranteed online impressions, according to MPG.

On UPN, Tyson-tagged billboards and promos will appear in 2005 for a custom-created "Family Night" of programming, and Tyson will be exclusive tune-in sponsor for the premiere episode of "Kevin Hill."

But that's not all. Nick at Nite's "Family Table" vignettes will be sponsored by Tyson, incorporating 30 billboards and 30 commercial adjacencies. On Country Music Television, Tyson's sponsoring a home makeover show, soon to be named.

So, what's Frank Perdue up to? Maybe he can get his oven stuffer roasters into ABC's "Desperate Housewives."