Hey guys! Here's a brand new article from
The New York Times on
NFL Kickoff 2003 and Brit's role in the show. Along w/ the article is a great new promo shot for the event, check it out. Enjoy!
NFL Opener With Super Bowl Effect 
By STUART ELLIOTT
NFL Kickoff Live 2003 will be Sept. 4 in Washington. After a $35 million promotional campaign — on television and radio, online and outdoors, and in magazines and newspapers — those consumers deaf to the buzz by a week from tomorrow will probably be the same folks unaware that Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears are, as Walter Winchell used to say, phfft.
Indeed, Ms. Spears is serving as the face of the campaign, as she cavorts, struts and pouts her way through commercials and advertisements in media outlets ranging from ABC-TV to Rolling Stone magazine to Westwood One radio stations.
Ms. Spears, who appears in the print ads and posters wearing at least parts of a football uniform, will be a featured performer in an hourlong concert before the season-starting game, the New York Jets versus the Washington Redskins. Among those scheduled to join her in the concert, to be broadcast by ABC, part of the Walt Disney Company, at 8 p.m. are Aerosmith, Mary J. Blige and Aretha Franklin.
The event, clearly evocative of Opening Day ceremonies at the start of each Major League Baseball season, is patterned after the NFL kickoff festivities last September in Midtown Manhattan. This time, though, the ballyhoo is bigger, primarily because of the extent of the promotional campaign, much larger than last year's, as well as the participation of the major marketers, far more extensive than last time.
For example, Pepsi-Cola North America, part of the Pepsi-Cola division of PepsiCo, paid $2.5 million for its new Pepsi Vanilla soft drink to become the "presenting sponsor" of the kickoff festivities.
"We think for the NFL to try to create a Super Bowl-type event at the beginning of the football season, to bookend the season, is credible," said Dave Burwick, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Pepsi-Cola North America in Purchase, N.Y.
"This event happened to coincide quite nicely with the launch of Pepsi Vanilla," he added. "It's an opportunity to create interest in our product at a time when people are re-engaging in the NFL."
Even so, whether shrewd marketers like PepsiCo and entertainers like Ms. Spears can persuade a nation to squeeze in another advertising-generated day is a big question.
"I'm not usually a fan of over-the-top marketing," said Jonah Disend, president at Redscout in New York, a consultant, adding that consumers are already "just so bombarded."
Nonetheless, a kickoff game "with hype built around it" could "make the football season feel more special," Mr. Disend said, "like the Olympics, which has clear opening and closing ceremonies."
Football may be able to generate Super Bowl-like anticipation for the start of its season, he said, because "of all sports, it's the most larger-than-life, with the size and scope that gives it that rock-star quality."
Speaking of rock stars, one, appropriately named Kid Rock, is the focus of the kickoff-event sponsorship by the Coors Brewing Company, part of the Adolph Coors Company. Coors plans to run a new commercial for its Coors Light beer, featuring Kid Rock, during the concert broadcast, and repeat it during the game. The spot, part of the "Rock On" campaign for Coors Light, is being created by the Chicago office of Foote, Cone & Belding, part of the FCB Group division of the Interpublic Group of Companies.
"For us, the NFL is pretty much a year-round sponsorship, not just in the football season," said Lee Buxton, vice president for marketing at Coors in Golden, Colo. "So to have a major event like this, supported the way the NFL is supporting it, and have it around one of the key summer holidays, Labor Day, were the deciding factors for us to take part."
*NEW* NFL Opener With Super Bowl Effect (The New York Times) 
That pic is so cool.. Two words: not. fair. 
