Oh yeah, probably wise of me to say that this is in fact a SPONSORED/ADVERTISEMENT theme, for those too slow to figure it out... Also, this CX Digital theme will be active for 30 days.
There are other advertisers lined up to skin WickedFire over the next few months, but none are allowed to skin for more than 30 days consecutively. Otherwise it will get way too annoying.
Skinning a forum is quite possibly one of the best ways to brand for an advertiser. It also costs a ton more than any other option avail, and even someone saying "well look how negative this thread is already"... Negative press or positive press, its all good press in the longrun because people notice it and remember it, its also not offending or pissing anyone off. Most people are going to bitch for a bit because they aren't used to it. Just so long as it doesn't have bright colors and flashy annoyingness tied to it.
/pitch
Seriously though, I like it. A lot better than the first version with the electric light blue and light red, bleh! Made me feel all dizzy. This one took me about 10 mins or so to get used to, and I'm kinda warming up to it. I just miss my inactive buttons on the top

Overall, I think its a pretty fuckin good way to promote a contest. I remember seeing them done on GFY (they go for like.. $25k/week). In the beginning there, people went nuts. "ohhh its ugly" or "ohh youre going to kill the forum you sellouts"... and then... people got over themselves and warmed up to it as being a pretty sweet type of advertisement. Sure as hell not as blatantly irritating like a popup, and rare enough to still catch your eye.
[insert Nicky complaints & accusations here]