If you’ve seen any TV commercials or online promotions with our man Shaq over the years, you’ve probably seen him doing a little pitching for Icy Hot. O’Neal has been a promotional partner of Sanofi Consumer Healthcare – which makes Icy Hot – for almost two decades. Now the company is assisting Shaq with one of his charitable programs in several cities.
The program is the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation charity’s “Comebaq Courts” initiative. which refurbishes inner-city public basketball courts to bring kids back to sports in their neighborhoods.
One of the coolest parts of that promotion has been Sanofi’s sponsoring the “Icy Hot x NBA 2k22 Charity Game” on the streaming platform Twitch. Shaq himself hosted the online event, and at the peak, it reached over 800,000 live viewers…wow!
The game featured top streamers and professional gamers like Kristopher London, WNBA star Aerial Powers and Nicholas Amyoony, all of whom promoted the event on their personal social media platforms.
Along with the online event, there’s been a lot going on IRL, too. You might have seen Shaq being interviewed by a variety of major media outlets including “USA Today,” “People TV,” “Yahoo!” and “Sports Illustrated.”
For the company, Alberto Hernandez – Sanofi’s US Consumer Heath head of pain and sleep – says the “Comebaq Courts” initiative fits with the brand’s mantra of helping people rise up from pain. In this case, it’s not just physical pain, but also the mental pain these kids are experiencing by not having a safe space to meet up and play.
To help the program, Sanofi and Icy Hot donated $1 from each product sold, up to a total of a $300,000 donation. That’ll help rebuild a few courts, for sure.
The program is already showing some good results. Not long ago (as of this writing) Shaq and other dignitaries cut the ribbon on a court project in Las Vegas for the newly renamed project, “The Shaq Court at Doolittle.”
The work continues. The next Comebaq Court will be located in Newark, New Jersey, where Shaq experienced some of his childhood days. The goal is to continue the project throughout the U.S. in the future.
Thanks to Shaq and Sanofi for helping out city kids and letting them keep on playing. Who knows… maybe another NBA superstar will get his start on a Comebaq Court!