NEW YORK – Tommy Hilfiger’s ultimate music fantasy will be played out next year when his company sponsors The Rolling Stones’ ‘No Security’ 28-city tour and bases its entire spring 1999 women’s and men’s sportswear and Collection advertising around a rock-’n’ roll theme. In the spring campaign, archival Rolling Stones photographs will be interspersed with shots of a rock concert and backstage party that was staged by Hilfiger last month in Los Angeles.

All ads will carry the tag line “Tommy Hilfiger Presents the Rolling Stones ‘No Security’ tour 1999.” Hilfiger’s name will be prominently featured on all Stones tickets, on outdoor marquees, on stage and on electronic banners and advertising posters.

According to Hilfiger, honorary chairman and designer of the firm, the company will spend $10 million this spring on its women’s and men’s sportswear campaign, up dramatically from $3 million a year ago. The women’s ads will highlight Tommy Hilfiger sportswear and collection and licensees such as sunglasses and footwear.

“It’s not just about shots of models on the beach or in a studio,” said Hilfiger, in an interview Monday. “Event-based marketing has more legs and more depth to it. There’s more PR value, and it creates a great interest within the industry and among consumers.”

Hilfiger said he has dubbed 1999 “The Year of Music” The Stones tour, which begins Jan. 25 in Oakland, Calif., and runs through April 13, will hit such cities as Philadelphia, Boston, Washington and Hartford, Conn.

“As far as music sponsorships, it’s the ultimate,” continued Hilfiger, an avid Stones fan and a friend of Mick Jagger’s. Hilfiger said Jagger approached him in September doing a concert tie-in. Hilfiger wardrobed the Stones for their last tour, “Bridges to Babylon.”

“We worked closely during the whole tour. When this came about, he [Jagger] spoke to me,” said Hilfiger. “We thought it would be a great tie-in.... Their concerts span age groups from 15 to 55.’’

Peter Arnell, chairman of Arnell Group, Hilfiger’s ad agency, photographed the campaign in Los Angeles last month, staging an actual rock concert with the band Bender. Models, including Rebecca Romijn, Karen Ferrari, Mike Campbell and Winty, are shown getting ready for the concert at the Beverly Hills Hotel, traveling in a limousine, going backstage, screaming in the front row and attending the party afterward. The shoot took place at the Wiltern Theater in downtown Los Angeles, where the marquee read, “Tommy Hilfiger Presents the Rolling Stones. Sold Out.”

The ads will incorporate a new Hilfiger logo along with images of The Rolling Stones and Arnell’s photos from the staged concert. The new logo depicts the well-known Stones image of the tongue sticking out – from the Hilfiger flag. It will be used for spring only.

Multi-page inserts and spreads will break in February in such magazines as In Style, Glamour, Vogue, Sports Illustrated and the New York Times Magazine and will run throughout the spring in Jane, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, Self, Mademoiselle, Allure, Elle, Marie Claire and W. Men’s ads will appear in GQ, Rolling Stone, Playboy and Men’s Journal.

The Stones tie-in follows this fall’s Tommy Jeans promotional and wardrobing deal with “The Faculty,” a Miramax horror movie that will be released Christmas Day, and the Tommy Hilfiger USA sponsorship of the Formula One Ferrari Racing Team at the Grand Prix, which is in its second year.