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First Look: Glee’s New Ad Campaign

And so it begins: After turning down the volume just a tad over the summer, Fox is getting ready to sell the second season of musical megahit Glee (which premieres September 21). Vulture has your first look at the campaign, which, in addition to showcasing Lea Michele’s new bang-tastic do, takes a signature scene from the show’s pilot and turns it into a symbol of Gleek Power.

This year’s promo campaign, which will start appearing on billboards, buses, and everywhere else next week, provides a cold, wet illustration for just how empowered New Directions has become since the show began last season, and the ads featured the universal hand gesture for “loser.” When the show began, the slushee was “a weapon to put the Glee kids down,” says Fox marketing president Joe Earley, while by season’s end, our lovable losers had co-opted this weapon, dousing Mr. Schuester in the finale. Take back the slushee!

By the time Glee actually premieres, you will be seeing slushees when you sleep, or at least when you clench your eyes closed while hitting a high note. Fox plans to use the slushing image — with the tagline “Gleek Out” — in print and on-air and online ad campaigns for the show, with characters expressing their personalities via their respective slushing techniques. All on-air spots for the show will end with a slushee being thrown toward the audience, while Internet ads in mid-September will have users’ entire computer screens dripping with slushiness.

In other Glee publicity news, Brittany (Heather Morris) and Santana (Naya Rivera) have signed on to host Fox’s premiere-week programming, which means they’ll pop up between episodes of various network shows the week of September 20. The actresses will also be a big part of a fall-preview special Fox is sending to affiliates. Insert your own gay shark joke here.

First Look: Glee’s New Ad Campaign