The National Football League (NFL) is launching a new television advertising campaign aimed at introducing a younger audience in the United Kingdom to the sport of American football.

The ‘NFL Icons’ campaign has been created by the NFL’s UK office in London and is airing on a mix of youth-orientated television stations and in cinemas. Its introduction comes on the heels of the NFL’s announcement of a four-year extension to its non-terrestrial rights agreement with Sky, which will lead to more than double the amount of live games being aired and multi-fold increase in NFL programming.

Alistair Kirkwood, managing director of NFL UK, explained: “As well as delivering a direct tune-in message for Sky’s coverage, the campaign is intended to position the NFL to an audience who we believe are open-minded about the sport yet have little knowledge of it.

“By focusing on a group of five ‘Icons’ we aim to highlight the attributes that will make them attractive to a young audience. The campaign will present the NFL as being a raw and edgy sport with a high level of athletic excellence and excitement.

“Coming so soon after finalising the new deal with Sky and ongoing discussions about playing regular season games in London from 2007, the start of the campaign comes at a very exciting time for the sport in this country.”

To give the campaign a British urban feel, the NFL has commissioned music by one of the leading young producers in the country, DaVinChe, who composes, arranges and produces music in styles ranging from grime, hop hop and RnB to choral and classical.

Kirkwood continued: “We wanted a soundtrack that represented the excitement, attitude and athletic abilities of the players, but with a gritty, British urban feel. We felt that DaVinChe was the ideal person to provide that and we are thrilled with the music – it really bring the images to life.”

The NFL Icons campaign, on which MTV and Radio One presenter Trevor Nelson acted as a consultant, features five players: Michael Vick (Atlanta Falcons), Terrell Owens (Dallas Cowboys), Chad Johnson (Cincinnati Bengals), Troy Polamalu (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Jeremy Shockey (New York Giants).

The series of adverts kicks off with a 60-second advert based around Cowboys wide receiver Owens and will gradually introduce 30-second slots on the other players over the course of several weeks.

Several thousand advertising slots have been secured across a range of channels, including the MTV group of stations, Channel U and Kiss, while cinema advertising begins in the second week of October around selected youth-orientated films.

The NFL Icons can also be viewed at http://www.nfluk.com/.