THE owner of what may well be the most glamorous gams since Betty Grable's is the star of an elaborate cross-marketing effort to promote Hanes hosiery.
The campaign, with a budget estimated at $20 million, is centered on the singer Tina Turner, who has been signed to serve for at least two years as the spokeswoman for Hanes hosiery lines like Resilience, Smooth Illusions and Silk Reflections. In addition to conventional elements like television commercials and print advertisements, the campaign, created by the Arnell Group in New York, also features tie-ins between Hanes and the Virgin Records label of the EMI Group.
Those tie-ins, timed to coincide with the release of Ms. Turner's album ''Wildest Dreams,'' include offering hosiery to buyers of the album and albums to buyers of the hosiery.
Hanes will also sponsor the American leg (as it were) of Ms. Turner's concert tour in support of ''Wildest Dreams,'' which made its debut last week on the charts at No. 61. About the only step not being taken is asking Ms. Turner to re-record one of her biggest hits as ''What's Legs Got to Do With It.''
''It's synergies, synergies, synergies,'' said Peter Arnell, chairman at the Arnell Group, which was awarded the Hanes account in November, ''leveraging all toward one big strategic objective.''
''Advertising today has a role to be entertainment,'' he added. ''If we're selling hosiery, it should be fun. And music is a great way to express the beat, the mood, the tempo of what's going on.'' Indeed, the commercials, which begin running this week, take place as Ms. Turner shoots a music video clip for ''Missing You,'' the first single from ''Wildest Dreams.''
The Hanes hosiery campaign is indicative of efforts by some marketers to link themselves with celebrity endorsers who have rational, as well as emotional, connections with the products they peddle. Mr. Arnell, in fact, said the goal was a pitch ''not unlike Michael Jordan's for Nike.''
Another example is Sears, Roebuck & Company's hiring of Bob Vila, the home-repair specialist, to promote brands like Craftsman tools. And the M&M/Mars unit of Mars Inc. began a campaign for Snickers candy featuring Ken Caminiti, the popular third baseman for the San Diego Padres, only after he ate a Snickers bar before a game against the New York Mets last month -- and then hit two home runs.
''It's not just going out to get a celebrity; this one makes sense,'' said Cathy Volker, president and chief executive at Sara Lee Hosiery in Winston-Salem, N.C., who was also recently named a vice president of the hosiery unit's parent, the Sara Lee Corporation.
''We had done a survey asking women and men to tell us who they think of when they think of legs,'' she added, ''and the No. 1 response was Tina Turner. And when we spoke about getting Tina Turner as a spokeswoman, every single person said, 'Of course; why didn't anyone do this before?' It made us feel stupid for not doing it sooner.''
Ms. Volker called Ms. Turner ''a woman who epitomizes strength and beauty, and appeals to my 19-year-old niece as well as my 70-year-old mother. That's pretty cool.''
''We've been viewed possibly as a little stuffy,'' Ms. Volker said, referring to the Hanes brand image. ''It's fascinating we've been able to get a 56-year-old spokesperson who contemporizes us.''
Another task Ms. Turner is to tackle is to help ''bring together all the hosiery brands under the Hanes umbrella,'' Ms. Volker said, which are sold in department and specialty stores; their lower-priced siblings, bearing the L'Eggs name, are sold in discount stores and drugstores.
''The Hanes brands had become somewhat fragmented into a group of subbrands,'' Ms. Volker said. ''Tina Turner is a superstar with the stature to handle the whole umbrella campaign.'' (Coincidentally, L'eggs has also introduced a spokeswoman, the actress Jamie Lee Curtis, in a broadcast and print campaign by the Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising unit of Cordiant P.L.C. in New York.)
Ms. Turner's appeal has led to a decision to run the print part of the campaign in magazines that do not usually carry Hanes hosiery ads, Ms. Volker said, like Entertainment Weekly, Interview, Premiere and Rolling Stone, as well as in traditional titles like Elle, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. The commercials will appear on broadcast, cable and syndicated series like ''Baywatch,'' ''Best of 'American Bandstand,' '' ''Inside Edition,'' ''Murphy Brown,'' ''Seinfeld'' and ''Silk Stalkings.''
Though Ms. Volker declined to discuss Ms. Turner's fee other than describing it as ''significant,'' she said there were ''options to extend the contract'' beyond its initial two-year term.
Since signing Ms. Turner, she added, ''we've been getting calls from managers of other celebrities telling us they'd be interested in a similar campaign.'' Ms. Volker would identify the other celebrities only as ''big names.''
Actually, there may be only one star who stands as tall as Ms. Turner and on legs as stunningly shown off. But Dennis Rodman is busy promoting his new book.