Chick-fil-A Suits Up With ESPN's College GameDay for 2008 Season

Chick-fil-A Suits Up With ESPN's College GameDay for 2008 Season

On-set mascot activities, television spots, and web-site activation highlight arrangement

ATLANTA, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Chick-fil-A is further increasing its association with college football in 2008 by becoming the newest integrated sponsor of ESPN's top-rated College GameDay Built by the Home Depot.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020219/CHICKFILALOGO )

The key component of its involvement with the show is entitled "Mascot Movers" and will focus on the climactic moment at the conclusion of each College GameDay telecast when analyst Lee Corso predicts the winning team by donning the mascot head of his favored university. ESPN event staff in special College GameDay and Chick-fil-A co-branded uniforms will escort the crate carrying the mascot head to the set prior to Corso's announcement.

The agreement includes Chick-fil-A television commercials in each show plus a live camera shot of a Chick-fil-A "fan interaction area" on each campus at the College GameDay set just before the predictions are made by host Chris Fowler and analysts Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard.

College football fans will also have the opportunity to log on to ESPN.com (search: Chick-fil-A) and access a custom "Mascot Movers" website where they can make their weekly predictions on what Mascot is in the box and enter their picks on key College GameDay match-ups to be played during the weekend. Each week, ESPN and Chick-fil-A will award one lucky winner a VIP trip to the 2008 Chick-fil-A Bowl on December 31st in Atlanta and free Chick-fil-A food for a year.

College GameDay's inaugural show for 2008 will be televised from Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta on Saturday, August 30 for the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff Game between Alabama and Clemson.

As Chick-fil-A continues to strengthen its brand presence nationally, the restaurant chain anticipates the association with College GameDay will be a strong complement to the chain's college-level sponsorship portfolio.

"This new relationship with ESPN provides us with an on-going presence throughout the entire college football season," said Steve Robinson, senior vice president of marketing for Chick-fil-A. "We will begin the season with the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff featuring a tremendous match-up, and we will finish with the Chick-fil-A Bowl, on ESPN. We anticipate unique opportunities throughout the season to interact and share Chick-fil-A with college football fans throughout the country as College GameDay shows up at some of the biggest and most exciting games to be played this year."

About Chick-fil-A, Inc.

Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A, Inc. is the nation's second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain (based on sales), with more than 1,400 restaurants in 37 states and Washington D.C. In 2007, Chick-fil-A produced record sales of $2.64 billion - a 16.09 percent overall increase and an 8.47 percent same-store sales gain that helped extend the chain's streak of consecutive sales gains to 40 years. In 2008, BusinessWeek magazine included the chain in its Top 25 list of Customer Service Champs.

Credited with inventing the boneless breast of chicken sandwich over 45 years ago and first introducing the chicken nugget concept, Chick-fil-A serves nutritious and freshly prepared food products in mall locations, stand-alone restaurants, drive-thru-only restaurants, Chick-fil-A Dwarf House(R) and Truett's Grill(R) full-service restaurants, and through licensed outlets in college campuses, hospitals, airports, businesses and industrial sites. More information about Chick-fil-A is available on the chain's websites, located at http://www.chick-fil-a.com/, http://www.chick-fil-com/pressroom or http://www.truettcathy.com/ .

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Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020219/CHICKFILALOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Chick-fil-A, Inc.

CONTACT: Jerry Johnston of Chick-fil-A, Inc., +1-404-765-8174; or Rob
Kremer of Cohn, Overstreet & Parrish, +1-404-961-2224, for Chick-fil-A, Inc.

Web site: http://www.chick-fil-a.com/
http://www.chick-fil-com/pressroom
http://www.truettcathy.com/
http://www.espn.com/

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