Showtime to Paint 14 Towns Red for Dexter
Cable Network Teams Up with Pop2Life to Promote Drama’s Second-Season Premiere
By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/26/2007 11:51:00 PM
The streets will run red with blood Thursday -- well, the water in fountains in 14 cities, anyway.
Showtime is mounting a promotional campaign for the second-season premiere of serial-killer drama Dexter that includes dying the water in fountains from Las Vegas to New York red.
The campaign, conceived by New York-based Pop2Life, will use existing or custom-built fountains to riff on the drama’s overarching thesis. Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall) uses his job as blood-spatter 
expert for the Miami police department to indulge his obsession with blood and hide in plain sight as a vigilante serial killer.
When the drama premiered last October, it was the most successful original-series telecast in the network’s history. The second season of Dexter bows Sunday, Sept. 30 at 9 p.m. (EST).
In New York, a 15-foot custom-built fountain will be installed in Times Square in time for the morning rush Thursday. White-lab-coat-clad teams will distribute DVDs and other Showtime paraphernalia. The stunt will culminate Thursday afternoon in Chicago when the city’s famous Buckingham Fountain will be colored red with 100 beaming lights.
The Dexter promo comes less than one year after blinking light boards placed under highway underpasses and bridges in Boston to promote Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim toon, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, paralyzed the city and landed the masterminds of the stunt in court.
A Showtime spokesman said the necessary city authorities have been informed of the red fountains and all pertinent permits have been secured.
