• by May 21, 2004

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A WOLF SHOW'S UP ON FOX, DRESSED NOT IN SHEEP'S, BUT IN KMART CLOTHING? - At a time when some citizens are growing concerned that product placement is becoming the marketing equivalent of a wolf in sheep's clothing, Kmart has teamed with the WB to put its prime-time cast members in Kmart clothing. But unlike the less-than-transparent product integration deals that have consumer advocates concerned, the Kmart/WB deal will be anything but a trade secret. In fact, the marketer and the network plan to take their wardrobe deal way out of the closet and turn it into an off-air and on-other-people's-air promotion. Kmart will incorporate stars of WB series such as "7th Heaven," "One Tree Hill" and "Reba" in its print, radio, online, outdoor, in-store and even non-WB TV advertising buys.

And just in case any viewers might not make the connection between WB's dudes and dudettes and Kmart's duds, commercial breaks leading out of promotionally attired series will feature a pop-up calling attention to the fact that the "fashions warn by the stars" of the series were provided by Kmart.

And even though the MediaCom negotiated media buy won't benefit the WB exclusively, the network will get an extra boost from oodles of promotional impressions in Kmart's off-air ads and, ironically, on the airwaves of competing TV networks. Okay, so maybe the deal really is a wolf in sheep's clothing, but it's not one preying on unsuspecting consumers, but on the unsuspecting marketing departments of WB's rival networks.

OKAY, BUT HOW MANY ADVERTISERS WOULD LOVE REACHING NEWSPAPER READERS WHO'RE THINKING ABOUT STEALING? - As far as unique media sales propositions are concerned, the one being promoted by Metro, New York's new daily freebie, on outdoor media throughout the Big Apple are certainly eye-catching, but we've got to wonder about the message itself and who it's really aimed at. "I love a newspaper I can't steal," read the ads, raising questions about whom the tabloid is trying to appeal to and why the retail advertisers the paper is hoping to attract would want to reach them. It reminds us of the apocryphal story about the time a new New York Post publisher Rupert Murdoch was trying to drum up business for his tawdry tabloid, when one of New York's biggest retailers reportedly told him, "But your readers are our shoplifters." Anyway, we doubt Metro's readers actually have larceny in their hearts. And at the rate New York's newspaper war is going, they may soon be paying readers. In fact, the battle between Metro and its first-to-market rival AM New York may be having an affect on some of the city's tonier papers. The Riff has recently seen afternoon editions of both the New York Times and Wall Street Journalbeing peddled at half-price outside New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal.