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Saturday, 8 October, 2011 11:00 PM

Lifetime and bpg Shine Spotlight on Female Directors in Pioneering Creative Campaign for Launch of Groundbreaking Original Movie Five

FIVE World Premiere Set for October 10

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LOS ANGELES -- Lifetime (Lifetime Television) and bpg (www.bpgadvertising.com), a full-service, award-winning creative advertising agency for the entertainment industry, have jointly launched a groundbreaking print and broadcast campaign for the network's upcoming major movie event Five, an anthology of five deeply interconnected short films that use humor and drama to explore the impact of breast cancer on people's lives. Unlike typical promotions featuring actors or storylines, the campaign positions Five's high-profile directors – Jennifer Aniston, Alicia Keys, Demi Moore, Patty Jenkins (The Killing) and Penelope Spheeris (Wayne's World) -- as its focal point. Five will make its world premiere on Lifetime on Monday, October 10, at 9:00pm ET/PT during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"This compelling ad campaign for Five truly illustrates each short film's powerful message and the clear vision these directors have brought to the entire project," said Tim Nolan, Senior Vice President, Marketing, of Lifetime.

Shot in black and white by celebrity photographer Brian Bowen Smith, each out-of-home ad for Five features a single image of one director (Aniston, Keys, Moore, Jenkins and Spheeris) set against a black background with their name and the movie's title graphic in a steel blue color. In addition to the five directors, Emmy® Award nominee Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love, Grey Gardens), who stars in each short film featured in Five, is highlighted in the campaign.

"Unlike other entertainment advertising campaigns, we decided to take the unique approach of focusing on the talent behind the camera," said Steph Sebbag, President, bpg. "We tapped into the five extremely moving short films that these strong, influential women directed."

To help raise breast cancer awareness, the Five directors and Tripplehorn also appear in a PSA in which they each read a specific phrase of possibility directly into the camera. Their reading begins to intensify, flowing into one another until their words and faces blend together culminating into a steel gray screen of silence, after which, hauntingly and powerfully, the copy "You have the power to stop breast cancer" slowly appears. Viewers are then asked to join Lifetime's pioneering movement to defeat breast cancer at mylifetime.com.

The network's out-of-home ad campaign is featured at newsstands, kiosks, on billboards and transit shelters throughout targeted locations in the New York and Los Angeles markets. In addition, the Lifetime Five campaign features a 30-second promo and a Breast Cancer Awareness PSA.

From executive producers Aniston, Marta Kauffman (Friends), Paula Wagner (The Last Samurai, Mission: Impossible), Kristin Hahn (The Departed, The Switch), Kevin Chinoy (Greg the Bunny, Warren the Ape) and Francesca Silvestri (Greg the Bunny, Warren the Ape), Five features an all-star ensemble cast, including Tripplehorn, Academy Award® nominee Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April), Rosario Dawson (Sin City), David Eigenberg (Sex and the City), Lyndsy Fonseca (How I Met Your Mother), Ginnifer Goodwin (Big Love), Josh Holloway (Lost), Taylor Kinney (The Vampire Diaries), Jenifer Lewis (The Princess and the Frog), Jennifer Morrison (House M.D.), Kathy Najimy (WALL-E), Golden Globe® Award winner Bob Newhart (Horrible Bosses), Annie Potts (Law & Order: SVU), Tracee Ellis Ross (Girlfriends), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Tony Shalhoub (Monk) and Emmy nominee Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), along with Xander Berkeley (24), Alan Ruck (Spin City) and Scott Wilson (In Cold Blood). The inspiration for the five films was brought to the producers by co-executive producer Mike Wiese of JWT.

Through an interconnected story arc developed by Kauffman that uses humor and drama to focus on the effect breast cancer and its different stages of diagnosis have on relationships and the way women perceive themselves while searching for strength, comfort, medical breakthroughs and, ultimately, a cure, Five highlights the shared experience each short film's title character – "Charlotte" (Goodwin, directed by Moore), "Mia" (Clarkson, directed by Aniston), "Lili" (Dawson, directed by Keys), "Cheyanne" (Fonseca, directed by Spheeris) and "Pearl" (Tripplehorn, directed by Jenkins) – endures from the moment of diagnosis. Each touching storyline is tied together by chronologically featuring "Pearl," beginning as a confused child bravely facing the loss of her mother (Goodwin) to breast cancer to her adult life as a mother and oncologist treating other patients (Clarkson, Dawson and Fonseca) before she herself is diagnosed with, and ultimately beats, the same disease that took her mother.

Five is produced by Sony Pictures Television, Echo Films, Chestnut Ridge Productions and Freestyle Picture Company.

ABOUT bpg

bpg (www.bpgadvertising.com) is a full service, award-winning creative advertising agency for the entertainment industry. Through print, online and broadcast media, bpg conceptualizes clean, cutting edge and comprehensive campaigns, with big picture thinking. bpg has been nominated and has won dozens of industry awards recognizing its work in various media, including the 2011 Agency of the Year for PromaxBDA Awards, as well as Graphis Awards, Davey Awards, Golden Trailer Awards, Key Art Awards, and Telly Awards. The agency was established in 2005 by Steph Sebbag. Clients include Bravo, History, Syfy, NFL Network, Lifetime, E!, Food Network, Tennis Channel, USA, Showtime and 20th Century Fox.

ABOUT LIFETIME

Lifetime Television is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming, and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. Lifetime Television®, Lifetime Movie Network®, Lifetime Real Women® and Lifetime Digital™ are part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A+E Networks. A+E Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst Corporation and NBC Universal.

Source: bpg

Graphic credit: Thomson Reuters-NPR

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