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Fox is taking a new approach to advertising the new season of it’s smash hit medical drama House. The Hugh Laurie vehicle, which will premiere it’s season on September, has had teaser videos and cryptic signs posted up on the Internet and on billboards and other city advertising avenues. The teasers are unidentified on purpose attracting interest and making the viewers curious to know what they are watching. Called “Snakes on a Cane”, the tune-in campaign features Dr. House. Fox has finally revealed that the reason for the ads is to advertise House. The picture of Hugh Laurie wearing a T-Shirt with a cane wrapped around the medical symbol has been shown in the extended promos for Fox. The idea to do the campaign came from Mr. Laurie himself.
“I got a call months ago from [House executive producer] Katie Jacobs, and she told me Hugh had come up with this idea,” Fox’s Head Marketing Executive Joe Earley told the online Hollywood news site, TheWrap.
Laurie had been brainstorming some images in his head and one day decided to sketch a version of the classic medical symbol, the caduceus. Instead the staff staff was replaced with a cane, just like the one his character “House” uses.
Fox even handed out temporary tattoos with the SOC image in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. The show producers got their studio Universal to begin handing out the tattoos to customers who shopped at the NBC U store in New York or online.
Fox has launched a website — snakesonacane.com — and has posted a clock that counts down to the season premiere of House on Sept. 21.
Fox will still have traditional ads for House, but will continue the “Snakes on a Cane” theme in addition to having vintage ambulances drive around LA and New York, handing out the SOC tattoos.
Here’s a look at one of the spots: