Newcity.com Launches Irreverent Ad Campaign

Chicago-based Newcity.com, a recently launched portal site linking content from a national network of 45 alternative city and content Web sites, launched its first consumer advertising campaign.

Designed to drive traffic to the site, the in-your-face campaign, created and placed by Chicago-based McConnaughy Stein Schmidt Brown, will appear online, in print and on posters. Billings are estimated at slightly more than $1 million.

Our favorite line from the campaign: “At what point in the history of journalism did “trust” become synonymous with “great hair?” Hey, they’re “alternative” sites, remember?

Banners of all five ad executions will rotate on Salon, Snap and the Rolling Stone Network from April 15 through May 15. Banners also rotate on all 45 sites affiliated with Newcity.com for the rest of the year.

Posters will appear at various locations in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia, Each weekly alternative publication that is a companion to the 39 Newcity.com city Web sites will run 10 pages rotating the executions. A full-page execution will run in the upcoming issue of Granta, a quarterly literary magazine.

“Newcity.com truly is an alternative to the ever-consolidating mass media,” said McConnaughy Stein Schmidt Brown’s Dave Loew. “It’s underdog attitude and unusual perspective gives us a great ‘David vs. Media Goliath’ story to tell.”