Nickelodeon has a new teammate for its annual “Let’s Just Play” campaign: The NFL.
The National Football League joins the effort this week, with on-air content and in-market appearances that reinforce Nick’s health-and-wellness message to kids.
The cornerstone to Nick’s campaign, its Go Healthy Challenge, begins on April 29, encouraging kids to sign a pledge to be more physically active. Kids register online, then track their activities. The program runs through summer and culminates with a Worldwide Day of Play in the fall, when Nickelodeon’s cable channels go dark to encourage kids to get out and play.
This year, as part of the Challenge, Nick will air vignettes starring six NFL players who give fitness tips to kids. Those short segments, titled “Workout Like a Pro,” begin airing this week. They’ll run during Go Healthy Challenge programming on Nick’s flagship cable network, and on Nickelodeon video-on-demand and iTunes platforms.
The six players will also make appearances on behalf of Nick at the NFL’s Youth Education Town community centers and at some local events to encourage kids to register for the Challenge.
The players who are taking part in the campaign are Steve Smith (Carolina Panthers), Steven Jackson (St. Louis Rams), Ed Reed (Baltimore Ravens), Roy Williams and Tony Romo (Dallas Cowboys), and Tony Gonzalez (Kansas City Chiefs).
The NFL will also distribute “Let’s Just Play” materials and toolkits through some of its youth programs, and tout the Worldwide Day of Play during pre-season events and on its youth Web site, NFLRush.com.
“Raising awareness around the importance of health and wellness to our young fans has been a primary off-the-field focus for us the past few seasons,” said Beth Colleton, the NFL’s director of community ventures, in a statement. “Our players know the importance of staying physically active and through this partnership with Nickelodeon they will have an opportunity to continue to encourage children to lead healthier lifestyles.”
Aside from its NFL tie-in, Nick is also expanding the campaign with a six-month documentary series that follows two real kids as they work to make their own lives healthier. The series debuts on April 29 and will air on Sundays at 8:30-9:00 p.m. ET during the Teen Nick programming block.
This is the fifth year that Nickelodeon is running “Let’s Just Play”; its non-profit partners are American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation, whose joint venture, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, promotes physical activity for kids. Since its 2002 launch, Let’s Just Play has hosted 1 million kids in nearly 4,000 events worldwide. Last year, Nick registered 200,000 kids for the Challenge.
Network
