Elizabeth Conlin

Sitcom Sales

Free national ad for Ben Jerry's: A comedy co-producer agreed to put a bumper sticker on the wall of a sitcom set.

 

General Motors might pay close to half a million dollars for a commercial spot on the hit show "Roseanne," but the makers of Ben & Jerry's Homemade ice cream recently got free airtime.

Intrigued with the 1% for Peace movement -- a drive spearheaded by Ben Cohen to divert 1% of the defense budget to peaceful causes -- Norma Safford Vela, "Roseanne's" co-producer, posted the bumper sticker on a bedroom wall of the show's set for all 59 million viewers to see. Vela explains that it "fits the show . . . Roseanne and Dan are old hippies, after all." And that may be just the beginning: "I'm trying to convince the producers at 'Murphy Brown' to post a sticker on their set, too."

-- Elizabeth Conlin