NCAA BASKETBALL PLAYERS TO RAISE MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS AMONG STUDENT-ATHLETES

LG Electronics USA's "Game 4 Good" campaign will start in time for the NCAA March Madness tournaments in 2023. It will feature a number of well-known college basketball players to show how important mental health and wellness are for young athletes. LG has been an official corporate partner of the NCAA for the past three years, and this new effort expands on that relationship.

According to the NCAA Student-Athlete Well-Being Survey*, the rates of mental fatigue, anxiety, and depression among student-athletes in the fall of 2021 were comparable to those at the beginning of the pandemic. LG's "Game 4 Good" promotion is a collaboration with four NCAA student-athletes from men's and women's college basketball teams who have shown a strong commitment to mental wellness and advocacy work, with the goal of reducing the stigma surrounding mental health. Several collegiate athletes, including Stanford's Haley Jones, Louisiana State University's Flau'Jae Johnson, Indiana University's Trayce Jackson-Davis, and the University of Houston's Jarace Walker, will be featured in a video series produced by LG that highlights the importance of mental health and how the athletes "Game 4 Good."

Flau’Jae Johnson is supporting the Frank Callen Boys and Girls Club of Savannah, Georgia, an organization that helps community youth grow and build character through academic, social and ethical programming and offers several mental health initiatives.

LG's "Love the Game" platform for its NCAA collaboration includes multiple components, one of which is "Game 4 Good," which will launch on LG.com and other digital platforms, including LG, NCAA, and athlete partners' social channels. The partnership is based on the belief that everyone involved in collegiate sports—student-athletes, coaches, and fans—shares a common bond of passion, hope, heartbreak, and dedication. LG will give $10,000 to the mental health organisation of choice of each athlete partner as part of the programme.

• Haley Jones has chosen Katie's Save, an initiative that supports students and sports teams of all age levels by spreading mental health awareness.

• Flau'Jae Johnson is supporting the Frank Callen Boys and Girls Club of Savannah, Georgia, an organization that helps community youth grow and build character through academic, social and ethical programming and offers several mental health initiatives.

• Trayce Jackson-Davis is giving back to Reach for Youth, a community resource that provides a systemic and family-focused approach to mental health, creating a high-quality system of care.

• Jarace Walker selected the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization focused on mental health advocacy, education, support, and public awareness for mental illness.

"Student-athletes can experience intense pressures that can have a significant impact on their mental well-being," said Jeannie Lee, director of corporate brand marketing at LG Electronics USA. "Through the 'Game 4 Good' campaign, our goal is to share the personal mental health journeys of these amazing athletes and inspire conversations along with support that resonate with their fellow student-athletes and anyone that may find themselves experiencing similar issues. We also want to use this platform to better recognize the people and organizations that are actively working in this space to support student-athletes in various ways."

"This initiative is more important than people realize, and it just shows how much further we're going into the mental health space. I think it's good to have the conversation," said Louisiana State University basketball player Flau'Jae Johnson. "What LG is doing is so important, and it's a breath of fresh air, being able to talk about it as an athlete."

Trayce Jackson-Davis is giving back to Reach for Youth, a community resource that provides a systemic and family-focused approach to mental health, creating a high-quality system of care.

Transparent Conversations, a live-to-tape travelling podcast tour exploring mental wellness in athletics and academia, was introduced by LG last autumn. The tour is hosted by Prim Siripipat, a former Division I student athlete turned mental health advocate. The NCAA tournament is a great time to record new episodes, as they will feature student athletes, mental health experts, faculty managers, and more. Fostering intergenerational conversations about mental health awareness and action that lead to healing and mutual understanding is central to LG's goal to improve life for all through the "Game 4 Good" initiative and Transparent Conversations.

LG will have a number of interactive fan experiences in person and online during the NCAA Final Four weekend. These include the "Game 4 Good" and "Transparent Conversations" campaigns. Those who visit the Men's Final Four Fan Fest in Houston (March 31–April 3) will have the opportunity to participate in LG's MAX Out XR Experience, which will allow them to scan themselves in 3D and be transported into the Metaverse, where they can play a game (this experience will also be available on LG.com/ncaa for fans at home). In addition to the live half-court open shoot-around session, attendees can also get an early look at LG's new Mirror Counter-Depth MAX refrigerator with four types of ice, view exclusive LG content featuring LG's 10-year legacy of OLED technology, and more. At LG's Bracketball and 3D Avatar XR online event, which will be held at Women's Final Four Tourney Town in Dallas (March 30 - April 2), participants can compete in the NCAA tournament while watching the games.

Jarace Walker selected the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization focused on mental health advocacy, education, support, and public awareness for mental illness. Haley Jones has chosen Katie’s Save, an initiative that supports students and sports teams of all age levels by spreading mental health awareness.

LG revealed the three-year agreement in 2021 with the NCAA, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, and CBS Sports. The NCAA Championships Channel, a streaming channel that shows coverage of NCAA championships in a wide range of NCAA Division II and Division III sports, is now only available on LG Smart TVs. This is one of many things LG has done to help college sports fans and student-athletes all over the country get more involved and inspired. Through a partnership with CBS Sports and WBD Sports, LG's exclusive streaming service, LG Channels, has shown up to fifty NCAA Fall, Winter, and Spring championships both live and on-demand. The Rivalries is a documentary series that only airs on the NCAA Championships Channel. It focuses on some of the Division II and Division III college sports rivalries that aren't as well-known but are just as exciting. The first episode of this documentary series came out last year. Each episode is about a different sports rivalry and tells its story through interviews, old footage, and footage from current games. The Rivalries' second season debut is set for April 2.

To learn more about the "Game 4 Good" campaign, LG-sponsored March Madness events or the brand's partnership with the NCAA, WBD Sports and CBS Sports, visit LG.com/US/NCAA.

*Source: NCAA Research in collaboration with the NCAA Sport Science Institute and the NCAA's Division I, II and III Student-Athlete Advisory Committees, NCAA Student-Athlete Well-Being Survey (Fall 2021), published May 2022.