2025 Red Kettle Kickoff - The Salvation Army | Clapboard Ad Archive

The 2025 Red Kettle Kickoff from The Salvation Army, created by LERMA/ and aired during the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game against the Kansas City Chiefs, exemplifies how nonprofit brands can seize highly visible, culturally resonant platforms to drive frontline public interest objectives. Leveraging the formidable audience of the Thanksgiving Day CBS broadcast and the broad appeal of nine-time diamond-certified artist Post Malone, the campaign uses a live halftime show as a media tentpole to mark the official launch of the Red Kettle initiative, casting a national spotlight on the charity’s core mission of supporting urgent human needs during the holiday season and beyond. With a strategic placement in the thick of American sports fervor, the Salvation Army’s call for generosity is amplified both by the mass reach of the event and by the emotional gravity lent by one of music’s most recognizable stars, facilitating a powerful transfer of relevance from celebrity to cause. Here, the communication mechanism aligns with what Clapboard's taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#8—Ongoing Characters or Celebrities, in which the monolithic presence of a familiar personality not only enhances brand recall but also constructs an immediate bridge between the entertainment world and philanthropic action. Rather than deploying overt problem-solution narratives or dramatized testimonials, the campaign grounds itself in the halo of association, where the spectacle of a major live performance inherently motivates viewers to engage, donate, and identify with the Red Kettle tradition at a time of heightened emotional resonance and communal reflection. By prioritizing integration over intrusion, The Salvation Army maximizes the cultural impact of Thanksgiving, transforming the Red Kettle moment from a seasonal activation to an annual marker of national giving. Importantly, this approach directly responds to shifting audience behaviors, meeting people in the moments they gather to celebrate and binding the act of charity inseparably to a collective ritual watched in millions of homes. The campaign’s rating in the Clapboard global archive is 63/100. This work matters because it signals a continued evolution of public service communication, where celebrity integration and experiential moments are now critical levers for relevance and recall within competitive charitable giving cycles.