A new animated movie about a tap-dancing penguin is venturing beyond the Antarctic into uncharted territory - a promotional tie-in to pharmaceuticals. Characters from "Happy Feet" appear in an extensive advertising campaign, including network and cable commercials, full-page magazine ads and online banner ads, for Roche , promoting its Web site www.flufacts.com .

The site dispenses practical advice - like how to recognize flu symptoms and how to track the spread of the disease - and notes that doctors can prescribe an antiviral medication for prevention and treatment. In a list of such medications, Roche's own Tamiflu is at the top.

"As far as I know, this is the first time a pharmaceutical company has partnered with the entertainment industry," said Rob Donnell, the president and founder of Brand Arc, the company that helped bring together Roche and Warner Brothers, the film's distributor.

"Happy Feet," which features the voices of Elijah Wood , Robin Williams , Brittany Murphy , Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman , is to be released on Nov. 17 and is expected to draw families throughout the holiday season. It has many promotional and licensing ties, including a Burger King Kid's Meal. The movie's penguins will also be promoting Web links to General Mills , Pepperidge Farms, the Doubletree Hotels and Sears.

But having the little penguins push pills is very different from the usual movie tie-in, especially for an animated family movie.

A Warner executive, who asked not to be named because the issue involved both Warner and Roche, pointed out that the ads never depicted the penguin characters taking or dispensing any medication. "They are not trying to sell you something if you don't need it," this executive said. (Coincidentally, the film's director and co-executive producer, George Miller , who approved the various tie-ins, is a former doctor.)

According to Mike McGuire, vice president of anti-infectives at Roche, the convergence of the film's release date and flu season led to the liaison. "We wanted to communicate the risk of flu and drive consumers to our Web site. We wanted a different way to reach our target audience, which is moms."

It does not hurt that penguins are enjoying a kind of animal kingdom celebrity after last year's Oscar-winning "March of the Penguins." Or that they symbolize winter and cold. As Terence Hurley, director of public affairs for Tamiflu, said in an e-mail message, "We probably wouldn't have done the partnership if it was a movie about dogs."

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/business/media/06penguins.html