Dentyne Meets Teens Online

Cadbury Adams has beefed up Dentyne's online presence to reinforce its message to teens.

The gum brand taps lifestyle sites at Yahoo and America Online to tout Dentyne Ice, Dentyne Fire and Dentyne Tango.

"We've always had online presence, but this our first lifestyle effort using the Internet as a vehicle," said Business Director Victoria Lozano.

Dentyne is the exclusive sponsor of AOL Red@Night, providing nightlife content to teens. The site "lets them into a club environment without actually going into clubs," Lozano said.

Separately, Dentyne has tied in with Yahoo's instant messaging service to let Yahoo's 14 million users choose from different graphics—each connected to a Dentyne brand—as the backdrop for their instant messages. The effort "builds on the idea of freedom of choice" and reinforces Dentyne's three flavors, per Lozano.

A second Yahoo tie-in puts Dentyne ads on Yahoo's music site, LAUNCH, which carries music videos. Users see a Dentyne TV spot as they wait for a video to download.

Parsippany, NJ-based Cadbury Adams will run all three efforts through yearend, then decide whether to continue in 2005. Interactive agency i-Frontier, Philadelphia, handles alongside promo agency of record IMC, Holmdel, NJ. McCann Erickson, New York City, handles Dentyne ads.