Stuck in the Middle
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION scored some summer work for Malcolm in the Middle stars Frankie Muniz and Jane Kaczmarek, who will lend their faces to Purchase, NY-based Pepsi-Cola Co. for a back-to-school push running July 22 through Sept. 9.
The stars of Fox’s hit Sunday night series will be featured on P-O-P displays being delivered to 35,000 retail stores to support the program, which is centered on an instant-win game. A total of 300 million packages of 12- and 24-packs from Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi One, and four other SKUs will contain either $100 checks or “back-to-school bucks” good for rebates on Microsoft Encarta software, Mead notebooks, or PalmPilot organizers.
(Two- and three-liter bottles carry rebate messages.)
Radio spots break in late July. Davie-Brown Entertainment, Los Angeles, brokered the deal for Pepsi. TLP, Wilton, CT, handles the campaign.
“Frankie and Jane connect really well with the primary shopper for the family, so the program has a strong consumer pull,” says Tom Smallhorn, Pepsi’s senior marketing manager. Malcolm stays in the PepsiCo fold in a fall campaign for Frito-Lay’s Doritos 3-D.
Meanwhile, Battle Creek, MI-based Kellogg Co. this month breaks a tie-in with Fox evergreen The Simpsons that will run on 75 million packages of 10 breakfast food brands. Running through August, the effort features a variety of premium offers and a “Springfield Strawberry” Pop-Tart SKU. DraftWorldwide, Chicago, handles.
