Network's Second Original Dramatic Series
Premieres Uninterrupted on Sunday,
January 20 at 10PM ET & PT/9C
January 7, 2008 – New York, NY – AMC, the network defining the Future of Classic, will launch a multiplatform marketing campaign for the premiere of its newest original series, Breaking Bad. Created by Vince Gilligan (X-Files) and starring Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle), the series will premiere on AMC uninterrupted, Sunday, January 20th at 10pm (ET/PT), 9C. The series' marketing initiative is a multifaceted, multi-platform campaign.
Breaking Bad follows the story of a good man who chooses to "break bad" to secure his family's financial security. It is the second original dramatic series for AMC, following its first original drama Mad Men that premiered this summer to unprecedented critical acclaim and most recently received two Golden Globe® nominations for Best Dramatic Television Series and Best Lead Actor in a Dramatic Series for Jon Hamm.
AMC's marketing initiative for Breaking Bad includes a robust mix of television, outdoor, print, radio and online elements. Throughout the month, AMC and www.amctv.com will air short vignettes featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew of the series. The vignettes are designed to spark early interest in the series by introducing the storyline, and the characters and their relationships. Additionally, beginning in January, key art for the series will be displayed on billboards, bus kings and phone kiosks throughout major US markets. Non-traditional elements include an online branded game experience created especially for Facebook as well as a nonlinear micro-site that will live independently at www.breakingbad.com.
"The Breaking Bad campaign leverages the AMC brand and the cinematic quality of AMC's content to build a multi-dimensional, cross-platform initiative that goes beyond traditional marketing techniques to help increase awareness and build buzz for the show," stated Linda Schupack, SVP Marketing for AMC. "The series has broad appeal, yet engages distinctive audiences in different ways. Consequently, we created a marketing campaign that reaches multiple audiences with the media and content that resonates best for them."
The Breaking Bad: Chemical Codebreaker game is an addictive, branded game experience available exclusively as an application for Facebook. The game will tap into Facebook's active userbase (estimated at 60 million) while using the site's development architecture to allow inclusion of rich social networking features that improve the play experience and encourage participants to recruit other players. The Breaking Bad game is simple to learn, but difficult to master. Players are faced with a large central mixing beaker and a series of several flasks, each containing a different-colored chemical solution. Players pour chemicals into a mixing beaker, attempting to reproduce a specific chemical compound by adding the correctly colored chemicals, in the proper order.
The Breaking Bad micro-site, www.breakingbad.com, will create a visceral online experience and play a key role in building buzz for the series among a digitally-engaged audience. The site will be an intriguing, interactive tour in which users are propelled through a range of exciting experiences. Site users will be able to trigger interactive experiences and random navigation will ensure no two user experiences are the same
Breaking Bad will premiere on AMC commercial free on Sunday, January 20th at 10pm ET/PT/9C and will launch on VOD in both HD and SD the following day with special behind-the-scenes bonus content. The series premiere will immediately follow the AMC Premiere-Event of The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves. The movie will begin at 7pm ET/PT and will lead directly into the uninterrupted premiere of Breaking Bad.
The dramatic series follows protagonist, Walter White (Cranston), a high school chemistry teacher living in New Mexico with his wife (Annie Gunn) and teenage son (RJ Mitte), who has cerebral palsy. After White is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of two years left to live, he gets a newfound sense of fearlessness and a desire to secure his family's financial security. Putting his chemistry skills to new use, White chooses to enter a dangerous world of drugs and crime and ascends to power. The series will explore how a fatal diagnosis such as White's releases a typical man from the daily concerns and constraints of normal society and follows his transformation from mild family man to a kingpin of the drug trade.
Breaking Bad stars Emmy-nominated veteran actor Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle, Little Miss Sunshine); Aaron Paul (Mission: Impossible III); Anna Gunn (Deadwood); Dean Norris (Little Miss Sunshine); Betsy Brandt (CSI); and RJ Mitte (Hannah Montana, Weeds). The pilot is Executive Produced by Mark Johnson (The Chronicles of Narnia, What Lies Beneath, Donnie Brasco). The Oscar®-winning Cinematographer John Toll (The Last Samurai, Braveheart, Legends of the Fall) serves as Director of Photography.
About AMC
AMC is a multi-platform network that celebrates classic movies and high-quality scripted series. Among the elite services reaching over 94,000,000 homes, AMC defines what it means to be a classic movie network today, creating a distinctive viewing experience that celebrates all that is enduringly cool, personal and powerfully relevant about movies. AMC's comprehensive library of popular movies strike a meaningful chord with its audience, and its critically-acclaimed slate of originals all have a cinematic quality that allow them to complement and be complemented by some of the best movies of all time. A division of Rainbow Media Entertainment Services, AMC's sister divisions include WE tv and the IFC Companies. AMC is THE FUTURE OF CLASSIC.
About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media is a leading producer of targeted, multi-platform content for global distribution, creating and managing some of the world's most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands, including AMC, IFC, WE tv, LIFESKOOL, SPORTSKOOL, and VOOM HD Networks. Through its IFC Entertainment division, Rainbow Media also owns and manages the following: IFC Films, a theatrical feature film distribution company; IFC First Take/IFC in Theaters, a day and date theatrical feature film/VOD initiative; the IFC Center in New York City; IFC Productions, a feature film production company; and IFC Entertainment, which owns and operates a film library. Rainbow Media also operates Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales company, and Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company.