CINCINNATI (AP) – Procter & Gamble Co., a pioneer in television soap operas, is on the cutting edge of the branded entertainment trend with a new TV reality show featuring Gillette.

An ABC summer series that debuts Thursday night has celebrities including actor William Shatner, singer Jewel and skateboarder Tony Hawk learning stock-car racing from Gillette-sponsored NASCAR drivers. And the promotion goes beyond commercials – Gillette not only helped conceive and create the show, its presence runs throughout, from the show’s title to logos on drivers’ firesuits and cars.

“The creative concept and the brand are intertwined,” said Steve Fund, global business director for Gillette, the Boston-based company known for its shavers that P&G acquired in 2005. “Really, the show is the ad.”

With ever-increasing entertainment choices and TV viewers’ ability to skip commercials, networks and advertisers have been exploring ways to make televised product promotions, including weaving them into TV programs themselves.

“The standard 50-year-old advertising model that P&G almost invented doesn’t work nearly as well anymore,” said Leonard Lodish, a Wharton School of Business marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “There’s a lot of variability in how that works.”

Lodish, who has researched and written about television advertising, said from product placement to incorporating companies into shows – he cited NBC’s “The Apprentice” reality series, in which competitors’ tasks revolved around sponsors such as Burger King and The Home Depot – TV promotion is being transformed.

P&G, which backed the daytime TV serials dubbed “soap operas” starting in the 1950s, also has brands featured on cable’s The Learning Channel in “Home Made Simple,” derived last year from P&G’s home living tips newsletter and online site.

Gillette and BBDO advertising agency worked together to develop the series, titled “Fast Cars and Superstars – the Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race,” produced by New York-based Radical Media. The show has other sponsors whose logos will appear on cars during the seven-show series.

“It’s a really tricky thing to make work,” Fund said. “It can’t feel commercialized and forced.”

He said a NASCAR-themed show lends itself well because sponsor branding has long been so embedded into the fast-growing sport.

Gillette also is doing promotions to specific audiences it expects to draw for the celebrities, such as skateboarding fans for Hawk and surfing enthusiasts for Laird Hamilton. Fund said the 12 celebrities were strategically selected for wide appeal.

“I think it’s a good step in the right direction,” said Ryan Martin, one of the six “Young Guns” drivers.

He said the celebrities can help draw new fans to NASCAR. “It’s neat to have them talk about what we do.”

Fund said besides fan appeal, the show wanted drivers who were highly competitive. Former NFL quarterback John Elway and tennis star Serena Williams were among others who competed in a time-trial finale filmed at Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C.

Shatner, who likes driving fast cars and motorcycles at age 76, said he jumped at the chance to experience the thrill of stock-car racing, even if he was at a disadvantage against what he called some of the world’s premier athletes.

“Their hand-eye coordination by necessity had to be superior,” Shatner told reporters. “So I had to compete in some way. … I think nerve or stupidity; yes, stupidity was my best weapon.”

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On the Net:

www.gilletteyoungguns.com

www.abc.com

AP-ES-06-06-07 1650EDT