May the Force be With USC

 

Recruiting people to the dark side is so much easier when you add beer to the marketing mix.

To promote the Jan. 15 DVD release of Family Guy’s Star Wars spoof Blue Harvest, Fox Home Entertainment is sending Lil’ Darth Vaders and Stormtroopers out to a dozen college bowl games and nearby bars to reach everyone from casual sports fan to full-on facepainter.

Playing to Family Guy’s base of college-age dudes, Fox is dispatching “little people” in Stewie Vader costumes to tailgating parties, where they hand out stickers, posters and masks (each side portrays one of the film/TV villains) to revelers. Materials plug joinstewiesdarkside.com, a site that touts the DVD and a sweepstakes that offers entrants a chance to get drawn into a future FG/SW spoof. The initiative launched on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl and the Cotton Bowl.

A.D.D. Marketing and Advertising, Los Angeles, created the program. “Blue Harvest” refers to a phony film title/operation that was concocted to cloak the filming of Return of the Jedi in the early ’80s.