American Express Gets 'Glee'-ful

New campaign features stars of hit Fox series

By Jon Lafayette -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/1/2010 10:36:38 AM

American Express has jumped on the Glee bandwagon, making a deal with Fox to use original content created by the show's producers and featuring characters to support the credit card company's Members Project social action initiative.

Starting Wednesday (Sept. 1), content will appear on television, online and in movie theaters urging consumers to volunteer or make contributions to charities.

"We collaborated with American Express to develop an initiative with Glee to inspire people to take action and to make a difference," said Jean Rossi, president of Fox One and executive vice president, sales at Fox. "The partnership is built on the spirit of Glee's unique brand of fun to encourage people to get involved in anything from arts education to the environment."

 "We are very excited to be able to engage with the incredibly passionate fan base of Glee, and we hope to inspire even more people to do something good for their community through this partnership," said Nancy Smith, vice president, global media, content and community, American Express. "We expect the Glee spirit to mobilize even more people to contribute to their communities and create change."

The on-air part of the program features a series of vignettes, each featuring one of Glee's key characters. The actors participating include Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Chris Colfer, Jenna Ushkowitz, Kevin McHale, Mark Salling, Heather Morris and Naya Rivera. In addition to appearing on Fox, the vignettes will appear on American Express' online promotional channels.

The on-air content directs people to log on to membersproject.com/glee and participate in an interactive quiz to find out if they are more like "Shue" (good-guy glee club leader Will Schuester) or "Sue" (scheming cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester). Participants can follow the conversation between Shue and Sue on Facebook through the Members Project community page and Glee pages, and learn about ways to take action by volunteering, voting or donating through Members Project.

Beginning Friday (Sept. 3), a video promoting Glee and the Members Project starring Sue Sylvester and created by the show's writers and producers, including creator Ryan Murphy, will appear in select movie theaters across the country. Moviegoers will be able to interact with additional content via their mobile devices.