Toyota Celebrates Friday Night Football Every Sunday

By Marty Bernstein
Marketing & Advertising Editor

In many areas of the country Friday night is sacrosanct for high school football. Big cities, small towns, to small villages and every size in-between when the local high school team takes the field everything comes to a grinding halt. Football is king! It’s an American tradition…right?

That’s why Toyota has chosen to highlight and showcase some of the traditions of high school football programs around the nation with original content that will air every week on the NBC Sunday Night Halftime Show – NFL of course.

The program, which started last Sunday continues throughout the NFL season will be hosted by two college students, Jon & J.J., who are traveling around the country to find high schools with the strongest and craziest traditions.

Their show, "Jon & J.J. The Line of Scrimmage," will feature two pieces from each of the seven high schools they visit along the way. Inspired by the big sports networks, the pair will write, direct and host the spots right from the tailgate of their Toyota pickup. One feature will focus on the current team and an important game during the season, while the other will focus on the traditions of the program. All features that air on NBC will also be able to be viewed at www.toyota.com/football

"When Toyota decided to become a major NFL sponsor we wanted to bring more to the viewer than the usual coverage and halftime show," said Kim McCullough, corporate manager of marketing communications at Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. "After researching what really drives football fans we decided to go to the next level and develop this show to underscore their larger-than-life passion for the local game."

Besides the broadcast coverage on NBC, "Jon & J.J. The Line of Scrimmage" will be able to be viewed on NBCsport.com, SI.com, MySpace.com and the website of the hit TV show Friday Night Lights. "Jon & J.J. The Line of Scrimmage" will run an original feature during the NBC Sunday Night Halftime Show every Sunday through January 6, 2007.