After a disastrous campaign in the early 1990s with Wieden & Kennedy, Nike's agency, Subaru hit on a winning formula using Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan to sell its Outback line of vehicles. The campaign, created by Dallas-based Temerlin McClain, lasted eight years.


But a new campaign launched last summer, "When you get it, you get it," failed to capture sales. The company's sales declined by 3 percent last year, faltering in the latter half of the year.

Temerlin McClain and Subaru are still working together, but each has gone through some changes.

Subaru hired a new vice president of marketing, Rick Crosson, replacing Mark Darling. Temerlin McClain, in the meantime, parted ways with its executive creative director, Eric McClellan, who oversaw the Subaru account. He has not been replaced.

The company has an ambitious goal. It hopes to reach sales of 250,000 vehicles a year by 2006, up from 180,000 last year, Whelan said.

For Comcast, Armstrong's task is short-term, to build name recognition and credibility in 22 Western markets previously held by AT&T Broadband, which Comcast acquired last year. In some of those markets, customers have gone through as many as three cable companies.

In one of the Comcast commercials, Armstrong soars down a mountain road (shot near San Francisco), racing ahead of a pack of bicycle racers.

"No one will instantly make you their hero," the voice-over says. "No one will automatically give you respect just because you show up. ... You have to earn it."

"We were taking Lance's qualities and putting them on Comcast and Comcast employees. We showed him sweating and working hard," said Red Tettemer's creative director Steve Red.

The commercials, which started airing Feb. 14, will run through the end of this month.