Entertainment Tie-ins / Licensing

Petco and the San Diego Padres are opening the gates of Petco Park to man's best friend during their annual "Dog Days of Summer" event July 29, and throwing the first pitch will be Olympic silver medalist Gus Kenworthy, alongside his famous Sochi pooch.

Kenworthy gained notoriety not only on the slopes in the 2014 Winter Olympics, but off as well, as he made it his mission to save the stray dogs of Sochi and find them loving homes.

Skechers Performance Division has signed seven-time PGA Tour champion Matt Kuchar — currently ranked fifth in the world — as the first brand ambassador for the Skechers GOgolf line.

The multiyear partnership will feature Kuchar in a global advertising campaign that covers TV, print, digital and outdoor mediums. The company will also collaborate with Kuchar on a namesake signature shoe line.
 

Las Vegas -- The Hershey Company has opened a retail flagship, Hershey’s Chocolate World at New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

The store, which occupies two floors and has an eye-catching 74-ft. high Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar that visitors can walk through, is designed to provide shoppers with an experiential concept that immerses them in more than 800 candy and chocolate offerings.

Hershey's Chocolate World has opened a retail location at New York-New York Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
 
The West Coast flagship store, which occupies two floors and boasts a 74-ft. high by 24-ft. wide Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar façade sign that visitors can walk through, immerses consumers in more than 800 candy and chocolate offerings, including Hershey’s, Hershey’s Kisses, Reese’s, Ice Breakers, Jolly Ranchers and Twizzlers brands.
 

New York -- Mars International Travel Retail (MITR) has opened the first M&M's store in France, in Terminal 2A at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Dublin, Ohio - The final installment of Wendy's first-ever digital short film, "L'Estrella de la Toscana" – The Star of Tuscany, featuring the new Tuscan Chicken on Ciabatta sandwich, premiered this week on Wendy's Facebook Page and YouTube channel. To promote the sandwich, Wendy's created a three-part video series that gives homage to dramatic Italian cinema of the 1960s.

Throughout April and May, Wendy's asked consumers to be its screenwriters by submitting captions on social media to subtitle the Italian-dialogue video.  

Emeryville, Calif. - Jamba, Inc., parent company of Jamba Juice, is partnering with DanceOn, a YouTube network exclusively dedicated to dance entertainment, to execute a digital campaign to inspire customers to participate in the "Blend in the Good" summer dance video contest. From now until Aug. 31, the online contest will encourage dance enthusiasts to submit unique videos.

For the second year in a row, Sears' brand of Kenmore appliances will fuel competitive juices in Las Vegas when 400 cooks gather later this year for the World Food Championships.