When the San Francisco 49ers travel to Seattle to play the Seahawks on national TV this Sunday, viewers will be paying close attention to the arms and legs of Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick and Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson.
Fans of “Madden NFL 25,” meanwhile, also will be paying attention to the eyebrows of the two men.
A friendly wager between Kaepernick and Wilson entails the losing quarterback shaving off one of his eyebrows. The bet was unveiled in a TV spot in anticipation of the two teams’ NBC “Sunday Night Football” game, which shows both men playing against each other in EA Sports’ “Madden NFL 25.”
The facial hair situation is not the only objective at stake. Both teams go into the game 1-0 and as favorites to win the NFC West. Only one can go all the way to the Super Bowl.
EA Sports is supporting the TV spot with social media including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, sharing “more news about the wager” across all of those platforms.
EA Sports is using the promotion to keep interest high in its video game, which was released at the end of August. Sales of “Madden NFL 25” (the 25th anniversary of the game) topped one million units its first week versus 1.65 million last year (for “Madden NFL 13”), according to industry analysts.
Wilson, however, burst the bubble a bit. During an interview earlier this week on Seattle’s KJR-AM sports radio, he revealed that the bet was based more in fun that fact.
When asked by radio host Dave “Softy” Mahler, “Did you really make a bet with Kaepernick that the loser would shave off an eyebrow?” Wilson laughed and replied, “It was more of just a friendly, joking around type deal. It’s not real serious. We’ll probably do something digitally. Something like that.”
The “Madden NFL 25” version of the Niners versus the Seahawks “was three times more popular than any other [game] during the first week,” according to EA Sports.
This past weekend, “Sunday Night Football” featured a game between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys that attracted more than 23.2 million viewers and was the top-rated program of the night, according to NBC.
Brief Take: EA Sports is eyeing unique ways to keep consumers interested in its “Madden NFL 25” video game. Having NFL quarterbacks Kaepernick and Wilson make a friendly wager—whether it comes to fruition or not—is one way to keep fans’ interest piqued.
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