Internet & Interactive

WhirlGirl. Courtesy of Visionary Media.

Showtime Puts Whirlgirl In The Public Eye. Showtime will launch a new advertising campaign for the network's exclusive, weekly online series Whirlgirl, which premiered on SHO.com in February 1999. The new campaign, designed in-house by Showtime's Red Group led by Showtime Networks' Executive Vice President, Creative & Marketing Len Fogge, will debut in print, outdoor, and on the world wide web in August. Valued at approximately US$1 million, the campaign will run through October 1999. To generate greater awareness of WhirlGirl, the network will target national publications including Spin, Wizard, Electronic Gaming Monthly and Details. In addition, the campaign will include advertising on billboards, commuter rail, telephone kiosks and bus shelters, in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, and San Francisco. Several super-sized ads will also be placed on prominent buildings in highly trafficked areas. Showtime Networks Inc. acquired the online rights to the futuristic Web-based science fiction series from Visionary Media LLC. The WhirlGirl series features the adventures of Kia Cross, a 21st century, 20-something, freedom fighter, who reluctantly becomes the focal point of a revolution to liberate the virtual universe from a tyrannical media-tech empire called Zone Werks. New episodes of WhirlGirl debut on SHO.com every Friday at 1:00 PM (ET). SHO.com is the Internet service of Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI). SNI, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Viacom Inc., owns the premium television networks Showtime, The Movie Channel and Flix. SNI also operates and manages the premium television network Sundance Channel, which is owned by SNI, Robert Redford, and Universal Studios, Inc.

To learn more about WhirlGirl and Visionary Media read Lee Dannacher's "The Big Apple's Silicon Alley" in the August 1999 issue of Animation World Magazine.