Wait. I'm not a HTML/CSS wiz by anyone's stretch of anyone's imagination, but isn't H1 the semantically correct thing to use here?

So using his first example, instead of using <h2> just use <h1>, and then style it differently (if you want) with .promo>h1?

/me braces for thunderous scorn

edit: oh, I see, that breaks accessibility readers. Well that's unfortunate.