Range Rover In A Big Rush (CarzUnlimited)

Land Rover launches Range Rover Sport Thursday, June 16, with a campaign, via Young & Rubicam, Irvine, Calif., surrounding urban dwellers across the nation with the "syncopated moments" of an entire day, the agency said.

Working in conjunction with partners Wunderman and Mediaedge:cia, elaborate non-broadcast elements are tagged "The new rush."

Elements breaking in New York, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles include an installation in the New York subway that creates the effect of flip-book-style animation by the motion of trains themselves, a poly-bagged direct mail piece with The Wall Street Journal, ads in elevators, outdoor and scaffolding on select buildings, advertising on theater and tickets and the introduction of a limited-edition New Rush Energy drink, said Anthony DiBiase, executive creative director of Y&R.

DiBiase said the idea of an "endorphin high" gave rise to the "new rush" theme. The subway animation arose from a discussion about producing a spot that would play legibly when sped up on TiVo, an idea that turned out to be technically infeasible. Copy on the energy drink cans, manufactured specifically for the campaign, reads "And while it may be tasty and may induce a mild perkiness, it will not send shivers up your spine. It will not cause your heart to pound, your pupils to dilate nor your breath to come quick and short. For that, there^s a new rush. The All-New Range Rover Sport." It will be distributed at high-end health clubs. "We don^t want to blanket the marketplace with it," said DiBiase. "We want it to be a conversation starter."

An Internet component (thenewrush.com) places the viewer in an urban interactive animation from the driver^s point of view as people on the sidewalk stare at the Sport and comment upon it. "It tries to re-create the same rush," said DiBiase. "Part of the thrill is being seen driving one." Additional TV work with the new rush theme and syncopated drumbeat is coming in the next month, DiBiase said.

Campaign spending was not disclosed. Land Rover, a subsidiary of Ford, spent $80 million on ads in 2004, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. The more exclusive Range Rover line accounts for about 30% of vehicle sales, per Car Concepts, Thousand Oaks, Calif.