H-P cross-promotes Jumper

A new TV spot for Hewlett-Packard is also an ad for Jumper, the new sci-fi action film starring Hayden Christensen. The spot uses an existing H-P commercial with tennis star Serena Williams but sandwiches it between two 15-second spots for Jumper. Christensen leaps between the movie footage and the H-P spot and then back again.

But, as the Variety story points out, there is no actual cross-promotional deal between 20th Century Fox and Hewlett-Packard. Instead the blended spot seems to have come about because ZenithMedia, which handles media buying for both parties, saw a fun opportunity and made it happen, including having Christensen shoot some new footage.

There’s an ongoing discussion in the advertising world about how media buying shops are going to have to evolve and become more engaged in the creative aspects in order to survive. The thinking goes that as more buying systems get automated, these shops are going to find themselves out of work soon. This sort of identifying of opportunities and making it happen would be very much in line with that sort of evolution.