Global Television cracked open some new off-screen antics to boost its Fall TV fortunes. The net gave away a million fortune cookies in support of the launch of Survivor: China and some fortunate souls won free meals at Manchu Wok, or one of three trips for two to China courtesy of www.targetvacations.ca.

Global also formed what CanWest MediaWorks SVP of marketing Walter Levitt called ‘unprecedented’ cross-channel partnerships. More than 130 Sears stores in English Canada featured floor decals and window displays for Global’s top shows. A Sears-sponsored Global Fall Premiere Guide was distributed in all CanWest papers last month, supported online at www.sears.ca. Meanwhile, at Burger King, tray liners and tent cards showcased Global programs. All creative and media plans for an extensive OOH, print, radio, online and transit push were developed in-house by Global’s marketing department.

Not to be outdone, Alliance Atlantis’ BBC Canada tucked a saucy 16-page newspaper insert in the form of a British-style tabloid, the BBC Telly, in with 250,000 copies of the Toronto Star to push its fall slate. Even the CBC has stepped outside the box, producing in-cinema ads for its hot fall property, the costume-drama miniseries The Tudors, starring a frequently disrobed Jonathan Rhys-Myers. Some of us are more fortunate than others.