diff --git a/bin/ansible-playbook b/bin/ansible-playbook
index 31f45d4235c..8df340df4e9 100755
--- a/bin/ansible-playbook
+++ b/bin/ansible-playbook
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ def main(args):
 
             pb.run()
             hosts = sorted(pb.stats.processed.keys())
-            print "\n\nPLAY RECAP **********************\n\n"
+            print callbacks.banner("PLAY RECAP")
             for h in hosts:
                 t = pb.stats.summarize(h)
                 print "%-30s : ok=%4s changed=%4s unreachable=%4s failed=%4s " % (h, 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/callbacks.py b/lib/ansible/callbacks.py
index 37c6666062a..c981aabb7e1 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/callbacks.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/callbacks.py
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
 import utils
 import sys
 import getpass
+import os
+import subprocess
 
 #######################################################
 
@@ -74,6 +76,18 @@ class AggregateStats(object):
 
 ########################################################################
 
+def banner(msg):
+    res = ""
+    if os.path.exists("/usr/bin/cowsay"):
+        cmd = subprocess.Popen("/usr/bin/cowsay -W 60 \"%s\"" % msg, 
+            stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, shell=True)
+        (out, err) = cmd.communicate()
+        res = "%s\n" % out 
+    else:
+        res = "%s ********************* \n" % msg
+    return res
+  
+
 class DefaultRunnerCallbacks(object):
     ''' no-op callbacks for API usage of Runner() if no callbacks are specified '''
 
@@ -226,7 +240,7 @@ class PlaybookCallbacks(object):
         pass
 
     def on_task_start(self, name, is_conditional):
-        print utils.task_start_msg(name, is_conditional)
+        print banner(utils.task_start_msg(name, is_conditional))
 
     def on_vars_prompt(self, varname, private=True):
         msg = 'input for %s: ' % varname
@@ -235,10 +249,10 @@ class PlaybookCallbacks(object):
         return raw_input(msg)
         
     def on_setup_primary(self):
-        print "SETUP PHASE ****************************\n"
+        print banner("SETUP PHASE")
     
     def on_setup_secondary(self):
-        print "\nVARIABLE IMPORT PHASE ******************\n"
+        print banner("VARIABLE IMPORT PHASE")
 
     def on_import_for_host(self, host, imported_file):
         print "%s: importing %s" % (host, imported_file)
@@ -247,4 +261,4 @@ class PlaybookCallbacks(object):
         print "%s: not importing file: %s" % (host, missing_file)
 
     def on_play_start(self, pattern):
-        print "PLAY [%s] ****************************\n" % pattern
+        print banner("PLAY [%s]" % pattern)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils.py b/lib/ansible/utils.py
index c25d93c2450..c507103d677 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils.py
@@ -65,9 +65,9 @@ def smjson(result):
 
 def task_start_msg(name, conditional):
     if conditional:
-        return "\nNOTIFIED: [%s] **********\n" % name
+        return "NOTIFIED: [%s]" % name
     else:
-        return "\nTASK: [%s] *********\n" % name
+        return "TASK: [%s]" % name
 
 def regular_generic_msg(hostname, result, oneline, caption):
     ''' output on the result of a module run that is not command '''