GM Flips Cards on the 6th Day; Coke Pouring for Potter's Stone

Brandweek, Nov 13, 2000 by David Finnigan

Columbia Pictures is linking with General Motors for its impending Arnold Schwarzenegger action film, The 6th Day, with an online sweepstakes hyping the movie and GM's Yukon Denali SUV, and digital trading cards touting both.

Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment sent out a Schwarzenegger-themed e-mail last week to its one million online fans, featuring a streaming video trailer of the film and a GM sweeps entry form to win a 2001 Yukon Denali, Sony electronics and 15% discounts for movie tickets.

The six-week promotion also involves hotlinks from thesixthday.com to GM.com, where patrons can download 12 digital trading cards touting both the film and GM vehicles.

Cardmaker and digital collectible vendor CyberAction has created similar trading cards for the Xena and Hercules syndicated shows, Major League Baseball and pro soccer, WCW wrestling and Paramount Pictures' Star Trek franchise. While those cards were sold from CyberAction's Web site, The 6th Day marks the vendor's first movie tie-in where a partner will give the cards away "This made a lot of sense for General Motors," said CyberAction founder Christian Tureaud.

The 6th Day, which opens Friday features GM'S Denali and Cadillac lines, its OnStar technology and GM show cars such as an electric design and the Montana and Blazer SUV lines. "This was dictated by the film," said Candace Robbins, GM'S director of co-op marketing & entertainment alliances." Arnold wanted product that was representative of what was going to be in the market in the future." Prior GM product placements include the Lethal Weapon movies, Demolition Man, and last years Runaway Bride, which featured a Chevy Camaro.

Coca-Cola has signed as a promotional partner for Warner Bros.' Harry Potter and The Sorcerers Stone, set for a November 2001 release. Warner and Coke executives are not talking, but sources confirmed that the soft-drink giant will ride Potter to help boost its entertainment marketing presence after a noted Hollywood absence.

Potter has proven to be a hard promotional match for Warner Bros., but not for lack of trying on the studio side. Last summer, Potter author J.K. Rowling met with Warner execs to discuss possible tie-ins, but sources said Rowling generally nixed those ideas, including merchandise tied to fast feeder Burger King, which pours Coke (Brandweek, Sept. 4). For Potter, sources said Coke will go global with a cause-related effort focused on a favorite Rowling subject--reading--with both sides now ironing out creative issues.

FAO Schwarz is dropping World Wrestling Federation merchandise in its 48 stores." We are no longer carrying any of the WWF, or any other wrestling assortment," said FAO rep Alan Marcus. While not citing a direct link to concerns over violence, Marcus said WWF items "did not represent a really large part of our boys action assortment, to begin with. Some of the products were not the best match for our brand."

Marcus said FAQ contacted WWF execs about the decision. "We certainly spoke with them and explained our point of view on it and they certainly understood."

Meanwhile, the WWF last week filed suit against conservative media critic L. Brent Bozell Ill, his Media Research Center and its Hollywood watchdog offshoot, the Parents Television Council, in New York federal court. The WWF said the suit charges Bozell with "concocting a false list of advertisers who Bozell claims have pulled their support from WWF programming." Bozell said the allegations are "completely without merit."

Closing credits: Campbell Soup is sponsoring this week's L.A.-based telecast of ABC'S mid-morning chat show The View. Also, Colgate's Total toothpaste sponsored ABC'S "Super Soap Weekend" fan event last Saturday and Sunday at Florida's Walt Disney World Resort.