When the new issue of TV Guide reaches newsstands on Thursday, readers will find a 16-page booklet devoted to Fox's "Prison Break" series inside, including a pair of ad spreads capitalizing on a plot point to sell the Toyota Yaris.
The ads are the latest examples of advertising designed to break out by leveraging one brand to promote another -- and the creative contributions from magazine publishers that once came exclusively from ad agencies.
The ads show a man's back and chest, both covered by elaborate tattoos resembling the tattoos worn by "Prison Break" protagonist Michael Scofield. In the show's first two seasons, viewers found out that Scofield's tattoos incorporate hidden prison blueprints; in the ads, the tattoos feature the Yaris and the Toyota logo.
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