Beyond the Tube & My Name is Earl Cross-Media Sniff

This blog, Beyond the Tube, looks like it is just an aggregator of press releases to major broadcasters, but that is pretty helpful in itself. Indeed, the latest post is pretty interesting:

TV Guide magazine, one of the most popular magazines in the country, with 21 million readers each week, has partnered with NBC and Twentieth Century Fox Television for a unique interactive promotion. The Emmy® Award-winning comedy My Name Is Earl, one of the most talked-about comedies on television, will air the first-ever original “Laugh ’n Sniff“ interactive episode on NBC on Thursday, May 3 at 8 pm ET/7 pm CT. Viewers will have an interactive experience with the episode by using a special scent card available exclusively in TV Guide’s April 30 issue, which is available on newsstands on April 26.During the episode, NBC will prompt viewers via on-air graphics to rub one of six corresponding numbered boxes on TV Guide’s “Laugh ’n Sniff” scent card, which will release aromas pertaining to the My Name Is Earl storyline. The special scent card, sponsored exclusively by Oreo, Milk’s favorite cookie, is available only in TV Guide’s April 30 issue (over 3.2 million circulation; in subscriber editions and on newsstands Thursday, April 26). Oreo cookies will be one of the six scents featured in the episode’s storyline along with other scents, including “new car smell” and “obnoxious cologne.”

The episode will be promoted across TV Guide’s multiple platforms – TV Guide magazine, TV Guide Channel, and TVGuide.com, as well as on NBC and NBC.com.

“We are thrilled to be able to continue to deliver innovative ideas not only for our network partners but also for our advertisers. The Oreo brand saw the benefits of this program and quickly capitalized on the opportunity to create a unique consumer interaction with their product,” said Pete Haeffner, publisher, TV Guide.

Remarked My Name Is Earl Creator/Executive Producer Greg Garcia, “When John Waters guest starred on an episode of Earl this year, I asked him if he’d be cool with me ripping off the Odorama card he did with his 1981 movie Polyester and he gave me the thumbs up. I remember my parents coming home with the card and thinking it must have been really cool to actually smell the things you were watching.”

“TV Guide’s scent card provides a great way for My Name Is Earl fans to enjoy the sights — as well as smells — of this special episode,” said Kevin Reilly, president, NBC Entertainment.

“This cross-media promotion has enabled us to apply a new approach to our Oreo and Milk Moments campaign. We really like that consumers will have a fun and unique multi-sensory experience with Oreo,” said John Ghingo, senior brand manager, Oreo.

I’ve already got my brother (who lives in the US) lined up to buy the magazine. I would like to qualify, however, that this is not the first time a sniff and TV promotion has been done. A gardening show in Australia did it with a special episode on flowers. I mentioned it on this blog back in 2005. But the joke scents on My Name is Earl sound like fun.

Check out: http://www.allyourtv.com/beyondthetube/

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