Weetabix to launch new Shaun the Sheep Promo

By John Freeman on 12 January 2009

Shaun the Sheep creators Aardman have teamed up with Weetabix to launch a special promotion on over 20 million packs of Weetabix, Minis, Bitesize and Ready Brek in the UK.

Yes – that’s right. 20 million boxes of Shaun covered cereal.

The main offer will give consumers the chance to collect two sets of exclusive Shaun the Sheep books (only available through the promotion). There will also be an on-pack competition, inviting voracious Weetabix eaters to put down their spoons and design Shaun a woolly scarf instead.

The best designs will win a framed still of Shaun wearing the scarf.

The deal follows hot on the heels of Aardman’s recent promotion deals for Wallace & Gromit with Kingsmill and Pyrex in promotion deals which tied in with the broadcast of A Matter of Loaf and Death at Christmas.

“Shaun the Sheep is hugely popular with children and their families so it was natural that we worked with the family favourite Weetabix to create this promotion,” said Sean Clarke, head of Aardman Rights.

A new series of 40 seven minute episodes begin shooting in early 2009 for CBBC and Aardman has already secured a number of pre-sales for the second season of the show with broadcasters in Australia, France, Denmark and elsewhere.

Of course, here at downthetubes, we’d really like to see Egmont, who are now Aardman’s Shaun the Sheep publishing partner, consider extending their releases to include not just books and bring us a new comic, especially after the demise of Titan’s title last year. However, given how difficult creating a comic with no speaking characters in the source material is, perhaps that’s unlikely.

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.