Talk about bountiful harvest.

In a new campaign that Slice hopes will yield fruitful results, print, TV and online ads featuring oranges and peaches attired in skimpy bikinis have been launched to promote the new seasons of Real Housewives‘ Orange County and Atlanta editions.

Hoping to titillate the cable channel’s 18-to-49 female demographic, the in-house campaign launched Monday and runs through the month, coinciding with the Jan. 9 premiere of Orange County‘s fifth season and Atlanta‘s second. Focusing on the Toronto market, the campaign involves print, online, radio and TV, and out-of-home.

Solange Bernard, director of marketing strategy for lifestyle channels at parent Canwest, says the sassy nature of the campaign — and the absence of Housewives celebrities in the ads — is a first for the shows’ promotion.

‘In the past, we’ve conducted campaigns that focused on the faces of the women featured in Real Housewives,’ says Bernard. ‘When our creative came up with this promotion in early December, we thought it was a little risky and provocative, but that it was also fresh and fun for something we’re launching in the dead of winter. We wanted to do something that would stand out and grab people’s attention in a humorous way.’

According to Bernard, the Real Housewives franchises are among Slice’s top-five rated shows — a measure of the reality series’ true, ahem, ap-peel.

From Media in Canada