NCAA basketball players raise mental health awareness in new campaign

LG’s latest campaign, “Game 4 Good,” focuses on athlete mental health. The initiative builds on LG’s three-year partnership with the NCAA.

This March, LG launched its “Game 4 Good” campaign featuring some of the biggest names in college basketball. During the 2023 NCAA March Madness tournaments, this campaign will highlight the importance of mental health and wellness among student-athletes.

“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.“

The Game4Good campaign features multiple digital platforms, including LG, NCAA, and the athletes’ social media pages. The campaign is part of LG’s larger partnership called “Love the Game.”

Through the “Game 4 Good” campaign, LG aims to help break the stigma around mental health by partnering with four NCAA student athletes from men’s and women’s college basketball programs that have demonstrated a deep commitment to mental wellness and advocacy work.

The campaign features LSU’s Flau’Jae Johnson, Stanford’s Haley Jones, Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, and Houston’s Jarace Walker. As part of the campaign, LG is donating $10,000 to each athlete’s mental health charity of choice.

Stanford women’s basketball star Haley Jones on Katie’s Save

Jones partnered with Katie’s Save, an initiative that supports students and sports teams of all age levels by spreading mental health awareness.

“I’m playing for Katie’s Save because of what it means to the Stanford community, what it stands for, but also because I knew Katie personally,” Jones said. “I think the concept of Game4Good is really important now with the conversation about mental health. Just being able to share my piece of the story and hopefully inspire the youth to find their own path through it, I’m very grateful to be given the platform to speak on it.”

LSU women’s basketball star Flau’Jae Johnson on Boys and Girls Club

Johnson partnered with 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.

“I’m so passionate about the conversation about pushing mental health forward for the kids and people in the community who don’t know what’s going on,” Johnson said. “This program is helping us inform people, and information is key.”

Indiana men’s basketball star Trayce Jackson-Davis on Reach for Youth

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

“I Game4Good with LG because it helps me give back to my community,” Jackson-Davis said. “[Reach for Youth] is really for everyone which is big for me because struggling with mental health can happen to anyone.”

Houston men’s basketball star Jarace Walker on NAMI

Walker partnered with 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.

“I’m playing on behalf of NAMI because of the work they do around the country,” Walker said. “Everybody should be an advocate for mental health because everybody goes through it.”

Along with the donations and videos, LG will be recording new episodes of its “Transparent Conversations” series, which launched last year. The series focuses on mental wellness within athletics and academia. The two initiatives build upon the company’s mission to “create a better life for all by helping foster cross-generational dialogues around mental health awareness and action that offer pathways for healing and understanding.”

To learn more about “Love the Game” and Game4Good, you can visit www.lg.com/us/ncaa.

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