The NFL is using its Thanksgiving Week games to promote the league’s six-year-old Play 60 youth anti-obesity initiative. At every game this week, Play 60 branding will be featured on NFL fields and there will be banners on the sidelines and goal posts. Pregame activities will include Play 60 kids leading the home teams onto the fields. Sponsor activation includes Xbox leveraging its Kinect for Xbox 360 through in-stadium branding at venues in Detroit, Dallas and New Jersey, while giving consoles to youths who excelled in each team’s local Play 60 program. Quaker Oats, the official hot cereal sponsor of the NFL, continues to leverage its Play 60 Super Bowl contest, which offers the winner the opportunity to run the game ball onto the field prior to Super Bowl XLVII. The Dairy Management Inc. consortium will highlight its in-school programs. Halftime of each game will include a 90-second Play 60 spot featuring Kenny Chesney, who will be part of the Cowboys' annual Salvation Army halftime show. Detroit’s United Way Thanksgiving show will have a performance by Kid Rock. In New Jersey, where the Jets host the Patriots, first responders to Hurricane Sandy will be honored. Around 75,000 fans will be given a Jets scarf and attached hang tags will facilitate a promotion through which 100 fans will get to be on field for the halftime performance, said Jets Senior VP/Corporate Sales, Marketing & Stadium Development Marc Riccio. At halftime, Lenny Kravitz will perform three songs live on NBC, including his “Like A Jet,” which is part of league sponsor Pepsi’s NFL Anthem marketing program. Three-ounce cans of Pepsi Next will be sampled outside MetLife Stadium.
