24' spinoff deal no sweat for Fox

By Gail Schiller
Jan 19, 2007 - TheHollywoodReporter

Unilever's Degree Men has announced a multiplatform marketing deal with 20th Century Fox Television's hit series "24" that includes two original online short films, TV ads and an online animated series prequel with "24"-related themes and creative content as well as in-store promotions tied to "24" DVD releases. The online short films follow the adventures of Jason Blaine, a rookie at "24's" CTU and a new character created for the campaign. The films, which can be viewed on a new interactive Web site, www.CTURookie.com, will be turned into a series of six episodic national TV spots with "24"-esque cliffhanger endings that will air on Fox networks. The films and the first spot debuted this week to coincide with the Season 6 premiere "24." MindShare Entertainment, the branded entertainment arm of Unilever's media agency Mindshare and production company Science + Fiction, created and produced the films and TV spots. In order to give the content the "look and feel" of "24," they hired Rodney Charters -- "24's" director of photography who has helmed previous episodes of the hit show -- as director. Various members of "24's" key production crew and stunt coordination teams also were involved. "We wanted the creative content to be produced in conjunction with a lot of key people at '24' to make sure the experience and the final result was authentic," said David Lang, senior partner, director of programming at Mindshare Entertainment. Lang, who was executive producer of the short films along with Science + Fiction president Kevin Townsend, said Fox Studios allowed them to shoot on the CTU set and use many of the show's key signature elements "from the clock to the sound design to the box-in-box format." At the conclusion of the season, Degree Men will present "Day Zero," an online flash-animated prequel to "24" that will delve into the events that took place before the series began. It will be produced by Fox Studios, with animation by digital content studio Icebox. Degree Men will not be integrated into any of the content, but rather will have "Powered by Degree" branding on CTURookie.com and Degree branding on the TV spots.