As TV begins to play an increasingly important role in consumer’s lives, creative networks are creating campaigns that place their characters directly into the real world, adding a new dimension of reality to the characters on screen.
In June, full-page ads appeared in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times featuring an alarming headline, “The Russians Are Here,” above an image of the Washington Monument wrapped in a Soviet-style flag. The ad was actually taken out by FX to promote The Americans, its critically-acclaimed show about Soviet spies living in a Cold War-era America.