Cross promotions are not a new concept to TV heads, but this one cooked up by the folks behind the CW's Vampire Diaries deserves a Peabody Award. As Brad mentioned earlier today, The Vampire Diaries is being cross-promoted with the American Red Cross in which the show is hosting its own blood drive.

What a great idea and a great cause! Just think of the other charitable promotions this will inspire other shows to tackle.

I'm really surprised the folks behind True Blood or Twilight didn't think of this. The CW's new vampire teen drama, The Vampire Diaries, is working with the American Red Cross to promote the feeding of young, hungry vampires across the whole country by giving blood in high schools and colleges.

Okay, maybe the blood won't actually go to vampires (in fact, the promotion involves the tagline "Starve a vampire. Donate blood"). It is a good, thematic form of cross-promotion. The vampire market is stretched pretty thin nowadays, and anything done to distinguish one vampire show from another (that doesn't start with the word "Buffy") is probably a good thing.

Not knowing much about the show, it does seem like a copy of some of the concepts of Twilight. But all vampire literature is just an homage to the concepts from Bram Stoker's Dracula to begin with, so I guess it's all good.

(S05E16) At the risk of annoying John Hodgman, allow me to quote from this week's show: "Meh."

Tonight's episode felt like the obligatory Valentine's Day sex that millions of married couples went through a few weeks back: a robotic, passionless visit to all our familiar places that still manages to serve as a pleasant reminder of why we fell in love in the first place.

But that's okay. Not every experience can be the kind of handicap-stall-destroying booty-knocking that Phyllis and Bob Vance (of Vance Refrigeration) enjoy.

It's like I tell my wife, if the worst you do is "Meh", then you're probably doing all right. (It's usually at this point that she excuses herself from the room and weeps quietly in the bathroom).