Product placement moves to cartoons

O joke. A new cartoon series on Comedy Central will incorporate the names and products of sponsors into the animated action.

The first episode of the series, an adult cartoon called "Shorties Watchin' Shorties," is scheduled for next Thursday night on the Comedy Central cable network, which is owned by Viacom. Viewers will see animated product placements, ranging from subtle to blatant, in three of the seven 30-minute episodes, for three advertisers: Domino's Pizza, Red Bull energy drink and Vans sneakers.

A fourth advertiser, Activision, will not have its video games placed in the episodes, but will use the characters - two babies who behave like the rambunctious young adults at whom the shows are aimed - to introduce commercials for a video game featuring the skateboarder Tony Hawk.

Comedy Central and the advertisers decline to discuss the financial terms other than to describe the arrangment as a sort of bonus - added value, in industry parlance - for agreeing to buy a certain amount of commercials on a variety of shows on the network. Such packages can run into seven figures.

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