Sprint’s Desperate Housewives Campaign

Sprint and the producers of "Desperate Housewives" have teamed up to create commercial-break vignettes that incorporate familiar elements of the show to promote the telecommunications company. Sprint has a similar campaign that aired on the first episode of NBC’s "Heroes". The commercial-break vignette featured a new character from the drama. Apparently by weaving program elements into ad breaks, networks hope viewers will be less likely to channel surf or fast-forward.  This has led to networks working to make the ads look like the shows they are sponsoring. NBC has pioneered use of this technique, referred to as program-specific advertising. Networks hope the technique will foster deeper relationships between individual programs and advertisers.