NY- Howard Stern’s about to unleash a raunchy ad campaign to tout his Howard TV video on demand channel.
The shock jock will hit men’s magazines, New York City taxi tops and testosterone-pumped web sites to tout a free promotional weekend on the Howard cable net, execs from media company In Demand Networks told the Daily News.
The Stern free for all – actually it will cost one penny – extends from November 3 through November 5.
The one penny charge is intended to limit the number of young viewers, who would be forced to go through several steps and content warnings before placing an order.
The goal of the promo is to smoke out new subscribers. The centerpiece of Howard TV, launched by In Demand back in March, is a daily re-broadcast of Stern’s Sirius satellite radio program. The channel also offers uncut, classic programing from his terrestrial radio days, and original, exclusive content.
“It’s a smorgasbord of everything a Howard fan could want, the way Howard intended it – uncensored,” In Demand CEO Robert Jacobson told the News.
A monthly subscription costs $13.99 on Time Warner Cable and $9.99 on Cablevision.
Some of the Howard TV clips favorites expected to be offered up on the free weekend include, Richard Christy getting waxed, the Artie Lange roast and various porn stars riding the Sybian.
In Demand will be spending “north of $1 million” to spread the word about the freebie, Jacobson said.
The campaign, created by New York ad agency Walrus, includes over-the-top print ads starting to break this week in Playboy, Maxim and FHM magazines. They feature a Stern favorite, two women cavorting.
“You have a 50% chance of getting divorced anyway,” reads the headline of one ad which goes on to tout Howard TV’s “hot girls, crazy antics and wild rides.”
Another one showing two barely dressed gals tells Stern followers to “Turn copper into wood.”
Much tamer ads, starting this week, will blanket New York taxi tops. They’ll be plastered with the shock jock’s face on a penny, with the words “In Howard We Trust.” Howard come-ons will also run at male-oriented web sites like WWE.com and UGO.com.
Jacobson declined to reveal how many subscribers have so far signed up for Howard TV, but said “it has exceeded our expectations.” The potential audience is the 25 million U.S. and Canadian homes who have video on demand on their cable systems.
For now, the majority of Howard TV subscribers are also Sirius customers, said Jacobson, adding that he is looking to expand the audience.