Hershey strikes deal with US Olympic stars for Tokyo games campaign
TOKYO, JAPAN - November 1,2019 : The five ring symbol of the Olympic Games at tokyo museum and new stadium in background. Japan will host the Tokyo 2020 summer olympics and Paralympic.
Hershey has struck a key Tokyo Olympics partnership between its Reese’s range and three major US sports stars for its ‘ultimate team’ product campaign, including former record breaking swimmer Michael Phelps, writes Neill Barston.
The swimmer, who holds 23 gold medals to his name, will be fronting a new advert for the company’s brand, highlighting its latest Ultimate Lovers Cup series.
Though he will not be competing this summer himself, he will be joined for the campaign by two fellow world-record swimming stars, and Tokyo 2020 hopefuls, five-time US Olympic Gold Medalist Katie Ledecky and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Caeleb Dressel.
With a little over 100 days until the games is due to proceed after having already been delayed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, uncertainty had surrounded whether it would be safe for the event to proceed.
Despite headlines suggesting the international sporting showcase was set to be cancelled entirely, the Japanese government has indicated that overseas spectators will not be able to travel to witness the key global event. Organisers have insisted that despite its calendar move by a year, it will still be known as the Tokyo 2020 games.
“As America’s number one chocolate brand, we couldn’t settle for anything other than the best and that’s exactly why we’ve partnered with these legendary US Olympians: Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel,” said Margo McIlvaine, brand manager at Reese’s. “These three know exactly what it takes to be the ultimate, and we welcome them to the Ultimate Team Reese’s.”
Linked to Reese’s support of Team USA and the Olympic Games, the brand unveiled Reese’s Ultimate Peanut Butter Lovers Cups.
For the first time in its more than 90-year history, the brand released the most extreme candy version of its iconic Peanut Butter Cups by removing the chocolate, in the form of its limited edition Ultimate Peanut Butter Lovers Cups. Throughout the summer, the Reese’s brand will be using its social media pages and fanbase to support the much-anticipated Olympic Games and Team USA.
Reese’s Ultimate Peanut Butter Lovers Cups are being rolled out in standard (1.4oz, SRP $1.09), king size (2.8oz, SRP $1.79) and miniatures (9.3oz, SRP $4.09) at retailers nationwide starting now for a limited time.
