Archer has always had a tenuous relationship with clothes in its marketing campaigns and otherwise, and that isn’t changing as the FX animated comedy approaches its seventh season.

The ladies of Archer, including Pam (Amber Nash), Cheryl (Judy Greer) and Lana (Aisha Tyler) made their debut in last week’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

FX didn’t want to just do branded content for the magazine. They created four mock swimsuit photos, complete with faux credits. It appears we can thank Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) and Algernop Krieger (Lucky Yates) for the photography and Ray Gillette (Adam Reed) for the swimsuits.

“Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue is a cultural icon, and we were thinking of fun ways we could take part,” said Lance Reiss, senior VP of marketing for FX, in Adweek. “That led us to working on the idea of including the girls of Archer, and we’re tying together the print product, the digital product, and it will have a social element to it. These are the kinds of ideas that not only push us but help us keep it fresh for a seventh season of a show.”

“The Girls of Archer,” featuring additional branded content, is now featured on SI.com’s Swim Daily swimsuit section, with images of Pam and Lana sprinkled across SI.com to get more eyes on the content.

“The more we talked about it, we thought that having an ad that looks organic to the environment that also helps us promote the show is a perfect compliment,” Reiss told Adweek.

Last year, Pam’s phone was “hacked” and a series of nude photos were put online. Nude photos of the Archer cast was put on Reddit in 2014.

This is only one of the components to FX’s Archer campaign, joining the shot-for-shot remake of Magnum P.I.‘s opening credits released at the beginning of the month.

As reported by Adweek, Reiss promises more marketing initiatives upcoming, including a custom “turn off your cellphone” message that will soon be seen in theaters nationwide, driving eyes to the show for its seventh-season premiere on March 31.

Brief Take: While sometimes networks get complacent in their marketing as a series goes on, FX continues to ride gallantly into the Danger Zone in new and exciting ways each season.

Read more: Adweek

[All images from Adweek courtesy of SI]

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