Characters Welcome.

Saying it again: Cable beats network when it comes to promos of any regular series lineup. In general, cable’s done what networks used to, in that they’ve established specific “voices” for each channel that tie into all their shows. Love ’em, hate ’em, but pick any cable channel and you know which one it is. Home repairs. Overwrought housewives. Cute pets. Name it and there’s a channel for your particular bent, 24/7.

There’s one campaign in particular I like a lot which seems to be expanding. It’s not getting the attention in the trades or ad blogs that I can see but should. It’s USA’s Characters Welcome. Whereas a TNT focuses on melodrama or an FX pushes NC-17 limits, USA is looser with a range of different characters on its shows, and the campaign integrates that theme nicely. They’ve done profiles of outside “characters” from all walks of life too.

Checking out their site you can see how much they’ve expanded the basic premise beyond the initial promos. Recently, they even expanded that further to include a tour of America called Character Project, where top photographers went looking for real characters. (Sample image above.)

The only neg I’ll give them however is a heavy-handed attempt at a brand tie-in with Windex. Yep, the birds in that spot are “characters” and the spot was always funny, but it just comes off like blatant placement in this case. Did they really need the sponsorship that bad? Small thing though because the rest of the campaign is still one of the best efforts I’ve seen from a network.