DreamWorks, Glendale, CA, this spring unleashes its largest promotional slate ever with a multi-partner package for Shrek, a CGI tale about the adventures of a crabby ogre featuring the voices of Mike Myers, John Lithgow, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy.

The film hits theaters May 18 backed by a smorgasbord of support that, all told, will give it presence in more than 20,000 retail locations. Tie-in campaigns begin in late April and run through early June.

QSR partner Burger King will run a five-week premium effort offering 10 different toys in Kids Meals and Big Kids Meals. P-O-P and a reported $20 million in media support. Equity Marketing, Los Angeles, handles. The Miami-based chain is turning into a regular DreamWorks pal, having last year tied into two of the studio’s animated efforts, The Road to El Dorado and Chicken Run.

First-time partner H.J. Heinz Co., meanwhile, will splash Shrek characters on three million bottles of EZ Squirt, the new kid-targeted red and green ketchup SKU. Packaging features a mail-in offer for Shrek stickers. FSIs, radio ads, and TV spots featuring the title character enjoying green ketchup support. Heinz handles the promo end in-house, with Chicago-based Leo Burnett handling advertising.

Elsewhere, Glendale, CA-based Baskin-Robbins will run an eight-week campaign featuring Shrek-themed ice cream flavors, sundaes, beverages, and cakes. P-O-P and other in-store elements support.

“We fell in love with the movie the first time we saw it,” says Baskin Robbins director of marketing Joe Adney. “We immediately saw the opportunity to come up with interesting and exciting products.” Norm Marshall & Associates, Sun Valley, CA, handles.

San Francisco-based Chevron’s gas stations will host a game dangling prizes and sell collectable cups with the purchase of fountain beverages. Sour Punch, a candy brand of American Licorice, Bend, OR, will sport Shrek-themed packaging at retail. The company will also distribute the items via movie theater concession stands. Lastly, Tempe, AZ-based MacFarlane Toys, the property’s master toy licensee, will roll out 40 action figures, beanie toys, plush figures, and playsets via TV and radio spots, Internet banner ads, P-O-P, and FSIs.

Golden Books Family Entertainment, New York City, and Pillsbury Co., Minneapolis, this month celebrate the 30th anniversary of children’s classic Peter Cottontail with coupons for Pillsbury products on Golden Books displays in grocery and mass-merchandise stores and 100,000 copies of the Here Comes Peter Cottontail video. Meanwhile, Pillsbury serves up a Cottontail Holiday Shape cookie dough SKU at supermarkets and P-O-P featuring a giant plush bunny and Easter basket containing Golden books and plush toys. Ryan Partnership, Minneapolis, handles.

New York City-based Seventeen and JC Penney, Plano, TX, this month wrap the Rock Your Prom sweepstakes, which gives high-school girls a chance to win a prom-night package culminating in a live performance by new boy-band O-Town. The winner also gets a free limo, dress (from Penney), tux rental, dinner for two, and her prom photo published in the magazine. Runners-up win free prom dresses. Entry forms are available at Penney stores and on the magazine’s Web site. Teens who buy a prom dress at Penney stores get a faux tattoo premium. The O-Town concert will be aired via Webcast on seventeen.com in June. The campaigns were handled in-house.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary in June, Orlando-based Hard Rock Café will give away The Magical Mystery Tour Bus, the actual vehicle used by the Beatles to tour England in their psychedelic ‘60s period. The sweepstakes began in February in conjunction with the launch of a five-month tour bringing the bus from Café to Café. Ten winners receive trips to London for an anniversary bash featuring a live act (to be announced), celebrity appearances, and the unveiling of never-before-seen Hard Rock memorabilia. RPMC, Calabasas, CA, handles.

Scholastic Entertainment, New York City, is sponsoring an Internet sweepstakes targeting fans of popular Fox TV sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. Running through April, the effort is designed to hype Scholastic’s upcoming release of Malcolm titles. A Gotta Get On The Set sweeps will award a grand-prize trip to Los Angeles to visit the show. One hundred second-place winners receive prize packages containing all three Malcolm books, a portrait of star Frankie Muniz, and posters. Entry forms are being distributed through in-store displays, Scholastic Book Club mailings, the back covers of the books, and scholastic.com and fox.com.

Having scored its first major licensing success through last spring’s X-Men, New York City-based Marvel Enterprises is gaining even greater licensing action as the company builds toward the highly anticipated May 2002 release of Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: The Movie.

In similar fashion to the way DC Comics’ Batman enjoyed a resurgence after Warner Bros. launched a film franchise in the 1980s, observers are expecting the feature film from Sony Pictures to breathe new life into the almost 40-year-old Spider-Man property.

One of the more high-profile deals struck thus far is a long-term partnership with Riot Entertainment, a wireless entertainment publisher funded by Nokia Ventures, News Corp., and Softbank U.K., to develop original programming for portable communications devices. The deal includes content featuring Spider-Man, the X-Men, and more than 4,700 Marvel-owned characters. Programming will include games, icons, music, and chat forums for cell phones and other wireless platforms.

Marvel also struck a deal with New York City-based SFX, Inc.’s Motorsports Group to paint Spidey, Wolverine, and other characters onto cars in the United States Hot Rod Association’s Monster Jam circuit this year.

“It’s really the X-Men movie that kicked this off,” says Russ Brown, Marvel’s senior vp-consumer products, promotions, and media sales. “Every company has its time, and it looks like Marvel’s has finally come.”

Now midway through a landmark 10-year deal, McDonald’s Corp., Oak Brook, IL, extended its marketing partnership with Burbank, CA-based Walt Disney Co. last month by opening a new restaurant called Burger Invasion in Anaheim’s California Adventure Park on Feb. 8. The burger-shaped restaurant marks the first time McDonald’s placed a sales outlet inside a Disney park. The agreement lets McD sell Happy Meals featuring Disney characters — including the venerable Mickey Mouse, who has never before been licensed outside the Disney family.