We've already seen the marketing genius behind Showtime's excellent serial thriller Dexter at work: Blood-flushing urinals, dead guys on the street, body parts in the butcher's display window.

To market the series' third season, which kicks off Sept. 28, Showtime has produced a series of Dexter magazine covers. We've got Rolling Stone here, and below, Wired. So they're marketing these to … savvy media types? Because general audiences are going to prefer more severed body parts.

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Because vampires are all the rage right now, HBO is getting in on the act with its new fall series True Blood. It's show about a group of vampires living in modern society, and they will probably address all those questions about silver bullets, crosses, and daylight. But what makes the show worth even being interested in, of course, is the marketing leading up to it. HBO's main gimmick for the show is Tru Blood, an "energy drink" made of your favorite O or AB- platelets. Perhaps you've seen advertisements for it on billboards or websites like ours. There's also the website BloodCopy.com, a faux news blog for all things vampires. And some tube of synthetic blood that will likely appear in the mailboxes of television critics.

Which is all well and good, but when it comes to marketing a show about bloodsports, HBO's True Blood has a worth adversary.

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With all the fuss being made over J.C. Penney's real-but-not video spot that won a Cannes Bronze Lion, we were pleased yesterday when some actual marketing stunts arrived from Dexter, the Michael C. Hall series about a lovable serial killer.

First, there was Dexter’s Wrapping Paper ("Due to its impermeability and adhesion keeps the victim well wrapped and the floor free of blood splatter. Avoiding leaving clues and traces of any crimes."), which carried information about the series printed on the plastic wrap itself.

Then there was this guerilla stunt, with a piece of fake meat on display in a butcher's window.

And then came two truly captivating stunts: One involving a urinal, the other involving a dead guy on the street.

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The Parents Television Council is going to have something new to complain about. After lashing out at CBS for broadcasting a toned down version of the Showtime serial killer series Dexter, we suggest they turn their sights on Mark Ecko's entertainment company, which will produce a video game based on Michael C. Hall's sympathetic character. Just please, please let there be a scenario that involves that annoying bitch Lila to be slayed.