BRAVO ANNOUNCES GLAD & TOYOTA AMONG TOP SPONSORS FOR 'TOP CHEF 3 MIAMI' - BERTOLLI NAMED EMERGING MEDIA SPONSOR
Integrated Product Sponsors Tapped For New Season Include Bombay Sapphire, Breville, Cold Stone Creamery, Evian Natural Spring Water, Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals and Red Robin
Bravo Renews Overall Series Partnership With Food & Wine Magazine for "Top Chef 3 Miami" Premiering Wed, June 13 at 10:00 P.M. ET/PT
NEW YORK � June 8, 2007 - Bravo has inked partnerships with The Glad Products Company and Toyota as full advertising sponsors for the third season of Bravo's ratings and pop culture hit competition reality series "Top Chef 3 Miami" (Wednesday, June 13 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT). Bertolli - official emerging media sponsor for the series' WAP site and SMS campaigns - will reward a winner a trip to Florence, Italy to study lighter-style Mediterranean cooking. "Top Chef's" new third season incorporates an impressive lineup of integrated product sponsors including Bombay Sapphire, Breville, Cold Stone Creamery, Evian Natural Spring Water, Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals and Red Robin. The announcement was made today by Susan Malfa, Vice President, Ad Sales, Bravo.
Along with in-show integrations, Glad and Toyota will sponsor the "Top Chef" Foodie Flyaway sweepstakes, which will award one winner a trip to the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen in June 2008 - America's premier culinary event that brings Food & Wine to life with cooking demonstrations, wine tastings and panel discussions led by world-class chefs and wine experts.
For the third consecutive season, Bravo continues its overall series partnership with Food & Wine magazine, including the expertise of Gail Simmons as a regular judge, and prizing for the winner of "Top Chef 3 Miami," who will be featured in an upcoming issue of Food & Wine and appear at the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.
"Our advertising partners can count on Bravo's cutting edge 360 initiatives to deliver the 'Top Chef' experience for their brands at all consumer touch points. Our passionate viewers are engaged and want more 'Top Chef' online or on phone." said Malfa.
Elements of the advertiser sponsorships and integrations surrounding "Top Chef 3 Miami" include:
THE GLAD PRODUCTS COMPANY: A fully integrated partner, Glad is the official trash bag, wrap and container of Bravo's "Top Chef 3 Miami." Glad will provide a $100,000 cash prize for the "Top Chef" winner to use towards their culinary career. On-line sponsorship will include sponsorship of several "What What Happens" webisodes on www.BravoTV.com, as well as the "Top Chef" Foodie Flyaway sweepstakes.
TOYOTA: A fully integrated sponsor, Toyota will provide four Toyota RAV 4 vehicles to serve as the primary transportation for competing chefs to make their way around Miami for challenges and shopping for "Top Chef 3 Miami."
BERTOLLI: Bertolli is the official emerging media sponsor for the series' WAP site (wap.bravotv.com from any web-enabled phone) and SMS campaign (Text CHEF to 27286 to sign up to receive behind-the-scenes dish from the "Top Chef 3 Miami" contestants - standard text message rates apply). The winner of an in-show branded challenge will receive a trip to Florence, Italy to study lighter-style Mediterranean cooking. Additionally, Bertolli will sponsor www.BravoTV.com's bio section of the "Top Chef 3 Miami" microsite.
BOMBAY SAPPHIRE: Bombay Sapphire, the leading super-premium gin in the U.S., is the official spirit for Bravo's "Top Chef 3 Miami." The partnership supports the "Bombay Sapphire Perfect Pairings" event series � a nationwide competition that enables consumers to work side by side with today's foremost chefs and mixologists to create inspired food and inspired cocktail pairings. Jamie Walker, Global Master Mixologist for Bombay Sapphire, will be featured in an episode and will write a mixology blog for www.BravoTV.com.
BREVILLE: A leader in innovation for small home appliances, Breville will sponsor www.BravoTV.com's "Top Chef 3 Miami" recipe section of the series' microsite, and the Breville Hemisphere Blender will be featured in-show.
COLD STONE CREAMERY: As the official ice cream provider for Bravo's "Top Chef 3 Miami," Cold Stone Creamery will sponsor www.BravoTV.com's photo gallery section of the "Top Chef 3 Miami" microsite, and will be featured in-show.
EVIAN NATURAL SPRING WATER: The featured water in the series, Evian will award the winning contestant with a gourmet dream vacation to Evian-les-Bains, France, where they will learn new methods of cooking while relaxing in the French Alps. This gastronomic experience will include five nights of luxury accommodations at the Evian Royal Resort and Spa in France. The winner will discuss new ideas and develop meals with Michelin star chef, Michel Lentz. The winning chef will receive a one-year supply of Evian.
MERCK/SCHERING-PLOUGH PHARMACEUTICALS: Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals will sponsor a customized quickfire challenge page on www.BravoTV.com's "Top Chef 3 Miami" microsite.
RED ROBIN: Red Robin, famous for their gourmet "adventuresome" burgers, is incorporated into the series.
This season, cookbook author, actress and host Padma Lakshmi returns as host, along with head judge Tom Colicchio, celebrated culinary figure and co-founder of Craft Restaurants; returning judge Simmons of Food & Wine; and "Queer Eye's" culinary expert and series judge Ted Allen.
Bravo's hit reality competition series "Top Chef" offers a fascinating window into the competitive, pressure-filled environment of world-class cookery and the restaurant business at the highest level. A delight for all the senses, each episode holds two challenges for the chefs. The first is a quickfire test of their basic abilities, and the second is a more involved elimination challenge designed to test the chef's versatility and invention, as they take on unique culinary trials, such as working with unusual and exotic foods or catering for a range of demanding clients. The challenges not only test their skills in the kitchen, but also uncover if they have the customer service, management and teamwork abilities required of a "Top Chef." The heat blazes in Miami as the competing chefs live and breathe the high-pressure lifestyle that comes with being a master chef, and each week, someone is asked to "pack up their knives" and go home. In addition, each week will feature a special guest judge, some of the most respected figures in the culinary industry.
Magical Elves returns to produce "Top Chef 3 Miami." Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, who also produced "Project Runway" and "Project Greenlight" for Bravo, return as executive producers. Shauna Minoprio also serves as executive producer.
Bravo is the cable network that plugs people into arts, entertainment and pop culture with original programming, acclaimed drama series, movies, comedy and music specials, and by showing a whole different side of celebrities. Currently available in more than 84 million homes, Bravo is known for breaking exciting new personalities, shaking up the way we look at style, media, fame and Hollywood, pulling back the curtain on the creative process, and making influential and inventive original programming. Its critically acclaimed original programming includes the Emmy-nominated "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," 12-time Emmy-nominated "Inside the Actors Studio," "The Real Housewives of Orange County," "Top Chef," "Celebrity Poker Showdown," as well as the 2004 Emmy winner for Outstanding Reality Program, "Queer Eye," and the four-time Emmy-nominated hit competition series, "Project Runway."
Bravo is a program service of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBC Universal one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Bravo has been an NBC cable network since December 2002 and was the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts when it launched in December 1980. For more information visit www.bravotv.com.
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