Hallmark Dresses for Success

Hallmark Channel has signed five advertisers for a series of tongue-in-cheek back-to-school vignettes.

Staples, Kohl's, Subaru, Dairy Management and Wonderbread will sponsor retro spots that are effectively faux PSA's for proper parenting.

Spots show sartorially-challenged kids on the first day of school, including one with a mullet, butterfly collar and white polyester bellbottoms and another with tube socks, a bowl haircut and a Starsky & Hutch lunch box. The message to parents? Shop and dress your children "responsibly."

It is the first back-to-school promotion for the network. The campaign is the brainchild of the network's Sponsor hip Solutions Unit, whose goal is to create "tailored" environments for advertisers outside traditional spots.

Hallmark reaches 62 million U.S. subs via cable and satellite.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.