America SCORES First Ever National Commercial to Air During FIFA Women’s World Cup With a Generous Assist from Volkswagen
VW Advertisement to Run on FOX, Telemundo; Features the Passion America SCORES Brings to Building Confidence, Character in America’s Urban Youth
WASHINGTON, June 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Women’s National Team is off to a flying start in the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and America SCORES, a national non-profit, stands to follow in their wake, thanks to Volkswagen, which bought ad time to run a poignant spot showcasing the organization as part of the VW “Drive Bigger” campaign.
The power of America SCORES’ unique soccer-poetry-service model is captured in the moving, dynamic advertisement underwritten by Volkswagen. The 30-second spot features an original poem by award-winning spoken word-artist, America SCORES Director of Creative Arts, Charity Blackwell. It will run for the first time on Wednesday, June 19th and will continue airing on FOX and Telemundo during the tournament.
To date, America SCORES has helped more than 120,000 children from high-poverty urban neighborhoods lead healthy lives, be engaged students, and develop the confidence and character to make a difference in their communities and in the world.
“As soccer rapidly grows in popularity in the United States, we can’t leave behind those who otherwise have little access to the beautiful game,” said Bethany Rubin Henderson, President of the America SCORES National Network and CEO of DC SCORES, the largest after-school program for children in the nation’s capital. “We greatly appreciate Volkswagen’s generosity in supporting American SCORES, and helping us shine a light on the impact our organization has on underserved young people.”
“We’ve known of the good work America SCORES does for some time,” says Jim Zabel, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Volkswagen of America. “They have a fantastic story to tell, and by producing this ad, Volkswagen hopes to demonstrate how all of us can drive something bigger than ourselves in our own communities.”
America SCORES was uniquely suited to collaborate with the production team at VW to create and produce the commercial on a very tight time frame.
“We’re producing a documentary about soccer and inner-city America, and our poetry slams have been filmed and released on Amazon Prime,” said Michael Holstein, SCORES Director of Communications and Marketing, “so we had incredible creative resources that allowed us to work hand-in-hand with the team at VW to quickly craft a beautiful and powerful spot.”
America SCORES operates free after-school programs for over 13,000 kids a year, in 12 cities: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Portland, St. Louis, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Vancouver and Washington, D.C. Over 85% of SCORES’ participants live at or below the poverty line. Viewers are directed to www.americascores.org, where they can learn more about the organization, donate, or find ways to volunteer locally.
About America SCORES
A national nonprofit organization, America SCORES partners with public schools in low-income communities in 12 cities to provide a high-quality, award-winning after-school program to elementary and middle school youth. Integrating soccer, poetry and service-learning, this innovative approach improves at-risk students’ health, academic achievement, and civic engagement by focusing on teamwork, creativity, literacy, school engagement, and leadership. America SCORES’ mission is to inspire urban youth to lead healthy lives, be engaged students, and have the confidence and character to make a difference in the world.
Learn more at www.americascores.org.
About Volkswagen
Founded in 1955, Volkswagen of America, Inc. is an operating unit of Volkswagen Group of America and a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, with headquarters in Herndon, Virginia. Volkswagen’s operations in the United States include research and development, parts and vehicle processing, parts distribution centers, sales, marketing and service offices, financial service centers, and its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Volkswagen Group is one of the world's largest producers of passenger cars and Europe's largest automaker. Volkswagen sells the Arteon, Atlas, Beetle, Beetle Convertible, e-Golf, Golf, Golf Alltrack, Golf GTI, Golf R, Golf SportWagen, Jetta, Passat, and Tiguan vehicles through more than 600 independent U.S. dealers.
Visit Volkswagen online at http://www.vw.com to learn more.
Contact: Michael Holstein mholstein@dcscores.org / 202-441-6465
