Say good night to “Make it a Blockbuster night.”

The video and music retailer launched a $12 million advertising campaign Monday night that replaces the longtime tagline with the new theme, “One world, one word: Blockbuster.”Joining the new theme is a new torn-ticket logo with only “Blockbuster,” – dropping the word “video” and eventually the word “music.”

The old slogan “does not describe what the Blockbuster of today is,” said Leslye Lewis-Page, Blockbuster director of corporate relations.

Blockbuster is trying to diversify away from video rentals. It’s also planning to move its headquarters to Dallas this spring, and open an 800,000-square-foot distribution center to handle the packaging and delivery of an expanding group of entertainment products, including music, software and videos, to its North American stores.

Blockbuster is attempting to unify its video and music retailing efforts under one entertainment marquee, Lewis-Page said. Some Blockbuster Video stores now offer music products, as well as books from parent Viacom Inc.’s Bantam Books, and Star Trek products from Paramount Communications.

While ads with the “Make it a Blockbuster night” slogan might continue to air in support of video retailing efforts, the move represents a dramatic shift for the company, she said. The campaign targets 18to 54-year-olds, which is a wider audience than the company has marketed to in the past, Lewis-Page said.

The strategy and new “One world” theme present refreshing changes in stale industries, said Gary Arlen, president of Arlen Communications, a Bethesda, Md.-based consulting firm. The departure could help bolster Blockbuster’s numbers, especially in music retailing, which is an industry that has performed poorly lately, he said.

Blockbuster is not without its challenges, especially in video retailing, Arlen added. As more retailers offer cut-rate video rentals, Blockbuster needs to find its competitive advantage. An ideal strength is to combine the two divisions – video and retail – in a venue that gives the company an advantage over other large retailers as well as “mom-and-pop” video rental shops that can’t offer music, he said.

“That slogan exploits the brand for all it’s worth and meshes with this idea of entertainment, whether you’re looking at it through the ears or through the eyes,” said Arlen. “It takes advantage of going through that big blue and yellow sign.”

The old slogan was first developed in 1989 by the advertising agency Bernstein-Rein, of Kansas City, Mo., which is now again Blockbuster’s agency.

As part of the repositioning program, the company retrofitted 500 former video stores in 1996, dropping the word “video” from signage on those stores, said Lewis-Page. In 1997, another 2,000 video stores will be changed both in the United States and abroad, and about 600 new stores will open with the new banner, she said. How many stores will be changed over and how existing music stores will be affected by the change has yet to be determined, she said.

“We’re not going to be yanking down every Blockbuster Video sign,” she said. “What’s going to change is what happens when you walk into the store. You’ll see the change between the retailing and merchandising offerings in the store. But video is core, and that’s not changing.”

The change is best displayed in the company’s Fort Lauderdale prototype store at 1900 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. Display racks with 8,000 videos have been realigned to accommodate more racks and product, including more than 1,000 music compact discs and cassette tapes. Also on display: computer software, soft back books, and an expanded selection of package goods from Nabisco, Frito-Lay and Coca-Cola Co.

Whether Blockbuster will entice consumers to part with more of their entertainment dollars on music while shopping for a video rental remains to be seen, added Arlen.