Channel 4 has sealed a deal with Volvo to sponsor the hit hospital drama ER on the terrestrial channel and E4.
The deal is worth more than pounds 1 million and is the first time Channel 4 has broadcast an image of a car within sponsorship credits.
Volvo - traditionally promoted as a family car - briefed MindShare to dream up a campaign to target younger viewers for the smaller, 'snappier' Volvo S40 and V40 marques.
Nick Walford at BroadMind, MindShare's sponsorship unit, negotiated the deal with Channel 4's sponsorship sales manager James Oxley.
The credits, which debut on 1 March, feature a couple trying to get from one place to another while suffering a series of mishaps. They are assisted by their new Volvo. It ends with the strapline: 'Urban life support.
'We want to communicate the idea that people with busy lifestyles should own a Volvo,' said a BroadMind account director.
Volvo pulled out of sponsoring ER last year on the back of a new-media strategy that did not match the programme's audience.
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