For years, Publishers Clearing House — the company that uses sweepstakes to help sell merchandise and magazine subscriptions — has devoted a good deal of its marketing efforts to television commercials showing prize winners being taped for television commercials. Now, in a campaign that is to begin on Monday, the company’s commercials will be devoted to a different aspect of television: sitcoms.
The campaign, with a budget estimated at more than $5 million, features excerpts from three vintage television comedy series: “The Brady Bunch,” “Diff’rent Strokes” and “Gilligan’s Island.” The commercials use computer generated imagery to show the company’s Prize Patrol — the blazer-wearing team that turns up on the doorsteps of sweepstakes winners with comically oversized checks — visiting notable residents of Sitcomland like Mike Brady, Arnold Jackson and Gilligan.
(The check intended for Gilligan is simply made out to “Gilligan,” a wink at the show having never indicated what the character’s given name was.)
The campaign, created internally at Publishers Clearing House, is to run for two weeks on broadcast networks and cable channels. It was inspired, according to Todd Sloane, senior vice president for creative at Publishers Clearing House in Port Washington, N.Y., by an episode of the 1960s animated sitcom, “The Flintstones,” that was recorded by his TiVo digital video recorder.
In the episode, titled “The Sweepstakes Ticket,” Mr. Sloane recalled, “I saw Fred Flintstone running around and saying, ‘I won the sweepstakes.’”
After “a little bit more research,” Mr. Sloane said, he found an episode of “Gilligan’s Island” called “The Sweepstakes.”
Watching sitcom episodes stimulated thoughts about how “so many great sitcoms” include moments in which the principal characters go to the front door, answer the doorbell or open the door, Mr. Sloane said, adding, “I thought, ‘What if we were the ones on the other side of the door?’ ”
Mr. Sloane and others at Publishers Clearing House decided to consider sitcoms from the ‘60s through the ‘80s, because they would be remembered by the target audiences for the company’s sweepstakes, which are consumers ages 35 and older.
Everybody knows those TV series, Mr. Sloane said, whereas “after the ‘80s, the audience became more fragmented” and shows from the 1990s and later would probably not elicit the same response from viewers.
Then came the tough part, Mr. Sloane said: obtaining the rights to the clips — “the rights to the shows, rights to the actors in the show and to the music.” He turned to the GreenLight division of Corbis, which handles the licensing of such rights, for assistance.
There were a few clips “we couldn’t get the rights” to, Mr. Sloane said, and Publishers Clearing House may try again to obtain them.
The commercials seek to be faithful to the original content of the three sitcoms and include touches like laugh tracks.
In the spot featuring “The Brady Bunch,” when Mike Brady, played by the actor Robert Reed, goes to the front door he finds members of the Prize Patrol, in period-appropriate blazers, there. Clever editing makes it seem as if they speak to each other; when Mike Brady realizes he has won a big check, he shouts, “Carol!”
In the “Diff’rent Strokes” spot, the Prize Patrol members interact with Mrs. Garrett, played by Charlotte Rae, who opens the front door, and Arnold Jackson, played by Gary Coleman, who is indignant to learn that the check has been made out to his brother, Willis.
In the “Gilligan’s Island” commercial, there is no door. Instead, the Prize Patrol team encounters Gilligan, played by Bob Denver, and the Skipper, Alan Hale Jr., out in the open.
“We’re looking for Gilligan’s Island,” a team member says. “Is there a Gilligan here?” Gilligan, elated, runs around and shouts, “I won the sweepstakes! I’m a millionaire!”
In each commercial, after the sitcom characters meet the Prize Patrol, an announcer says: “O.K., that wasn’t real. But this is, and you can be next.” Contemporary scenes then appear of the Prize Patrol as they delivering oversized checks to winning consumers.
Some who watch the commercials may see them as saluting not only decades of silly, memorable sitcoms but also decades when Publishers Clearing House was a major part of the popular culture, largely because the Prize Patrol and the million-dollar prizes were fresh and novel.
That “really didn’t factor into” the campaign, Mr. Sloane said. “It’s more the golden age of the sitcom we were interested in.”
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