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 Valley" in the August 1999 issue of Animation World
Magazine.