• by Wayne Friedman , April 29, 2008

A&E Network will launch a new brand marketing campaign and three new series as a part of its upfront announcement.

The network will get a new logo and a new theme line--"Real Life. Drama"--that will launch on Memorial Day. A&E says the new campaign was 18 months in the making, and is intended to express more "honest, emotionally intense" television.

The new campaign will feature characters from the network's shows and will begin during the premiere of the Ridley and Tony Scott-produced limited series "The Andromeda Strain." It will continue in the summer, running in conjunction with new scripted series "The Cleaner," starring Benjamin Bratt.

A&E's campaign will run in national and local television, online, and print advertising in major publications and out-of-home in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and Chicago.

In addition to its eight returning shows--"Intervention," "Gene Simmons Family Jewels," "Paranormal State," "Criss Angel Mindfreak," "Crime 360," "The First 48," "The Two Coreys" and "Parking Wars"--the network announced three new series:

"The Squad" is about a maximum security prison in Tehachapi, Calif.--which is filled with the nation's worst criminals--and its police force, a squad of 12 team members that respond to every crime in the prison.

"Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal" deals with parents whose children bring them information that they can "see dead people," among other things. The reality show focuses on parents dealing with their children's paranormal abilities.

"Jacked!" focuses on a high-tech New Jersey government group, The Auto Theft Task Force, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at stealth tactics of car thieves.

A&E says it recently earned its best quarterly audience in network history, finishing in fourth place among adults 25-54 and fifth among adults 18-49. The network says it has the most original programming of any top-five cable network, and will increase original programming by 37% by the third quarter of 2008.