HALLMARK CHANNEL LASSOS LOCALS AROUND THE COUNTRY AS PART OF JULY WESTERN MONTH

100 Cowboys to Run Wild to Promote Western-Themed Original Movie, "A Gunfighter's Pledge," Starring Luke Perry

Hallmark Channel will employ guerilla marketing tactics to promote the network's newest original movie, "A Gunfighter's Pledge," starring Luke Perry, premiering Saturday, July 5 (9-11 p.m., ET/PT). The network will utilize street teams and wild postings in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Boston to help drive viewer tune-in and local market awareness of the new original movie, as well as offer the opportunity for one lucky viewer to win an all-expense paid trip to an exclusive resort in Sedona, Arizona for the network's GO WEST! sweepstakes, part of July's "Rough N' Ready" month of Western-themed movies.

From June 30-July 2, Hallmark Channel will dispatch 20 cowboys each day in each city to interact with pedestrians in key areas, including Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza in NY; Venice Beach and the Santa Monica Pier in LA; Hyde Park and the Magnificent Mile in Chicago; Fenway Park and Boston Common in Boston; and Centennial Olympic Park and the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. Over the three days, the cowboys will include passersby in classic good vs. bad showdowns and deputize locals with Sheriff's badges featuring tune-in information for "A Gunfighter's Pledge," the "Rough N' Ready" festival, and entry information for the GO WEST! sweepstakes.

Wild postings will be executed in each of the five cities to create awareness for "A Gunfighter's Pledge" in the form of Old west style WANTED posters featuring an ink- block likeness of Luke Perry's character Matt Austin and the phrase, "a sheriff with nothing to lose." Tune-in information will drive viewers to the July 5 premiere of the movie.

In addition to guerilla marketing tactics, Hallmark Channel will drive tune-in to the movie via a national media campaign featuring cable, radio, online and print ads, as well as local spot buys on broadcast and cable television, and local radio via news and traffic sponsorships and promotions to support the street teams.

The GO WEST! sweepstakes will award one lucky winner a trip for two to the exclusive Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Ariz., including round-trip airfare, deluxe hotel accommodations, spa treatments and spending money. GO WEST! is tied to the network's month long "Rough N' Ready" on-air Western-themed movie festival featuring Western movies every night in July at 9 p.m.

"A Gunfighter's Pledge" stars Luke Perry as ex-lawman Matt Austin, who accidentally kills an innocent man while hunting Tate (Kim Coates, "Prison Break"), an outlaw who killed his family. Austin pledges to the dying man that he will return his body to his sister, Amaya (Jaclyn DeSantis, "Windfall"), at their family farm. Once there, he becomes embroiled in a dispute between Amaya and Horn (C. Thomas Howell, "24"), a landowner and businessman who is trying to force Amaya to sell him her land by any means necessary. Unbeknownst to Austin, Horn has hired Tate as part of a vicious posse, leading to an inevitable showdown with lives and livelihoods hanging in the balance.

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 83 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,450 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Prime Time and Total Day household ratings and is the nation's leading network in providing quality family programming. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel which plays the greatest family movies of all time, Hallmark Movie Channel, and launched Hallmark Movie Channel HD on April 2, 2008.