If there’s one thing Shaq’s a genius at, it’s partnerships. This time he’s outdone himself. Shaquille O’Neal took his longstanding partnership with JCPenney and Amazon Prime, his love for football, and his celebrity friendships called in his production studio, and created something awesome – a season-long campaign for Thursday Night Football. Apart from Shaq shimmying all over this ad spot, he’s got his friends, Martha Stewart, Walker Hayes, Jenny Martinez, and Gabrielle Union. Shaq and Stewart are a powerhouse duo already. But this is a first we’re seeing O’Neal collaborate with Dwyane Wade’s wife.

O’Neal shared the new commercial for JCPenney, produced by himself under the Jersey Legends banner. “During Thursday Night Football, JCPenney is releasing a season-long series of Really Big Deal reveals in collaboration with celebrity brand partners on Prime Video. This exciting campaign launches today, and for the next 16 weeks, will bring exclusive offers and promotions to millions of football fans, blending the thrill of the game with unbeatable savings. The campaign was also produced by Shaquille O’Neal’s, Jersey Legends Productions!” the studio wrote on Instagram.

With Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, Amazon and JCPenney are running the ‘Really Big Deal Reveals’ campaign that will run for 16 weeks of the 2024-25 NFL season. After doing something similar last year, JCPenney added some star power to this season’s campaign by bringing in their ‘biggest’ backer.

O’Neal is the second largest shareholder in Authentic Brands Group, which owns a 16.6% minority stake in JCPenney. Shaq has standing partnerships with almost every brand under Authentic’s umbrella, including Reebok and JCPenney.

He launched his menswear line ‘Shaquille O’Neal XLG’ through the store. JC Penney is also one of the biggest supporters for the NBA legend’s philanthropy, often sponsoring gift cards to the Boys & Girls Club at ‘Shaq-to-School’ and ‘Shaq-a-Claus.’

Getting O’Neal on board was a no-brainer by JCPenney and Prime Video. The scale this year though is mindblowing.

Shaq turns JCPenney’s fortunes around

O’Neal’s on-court partnership with Dwyane Wade was for the books. But we’ve never seen him and Gabrielle Union in the same space before this commercial.

In each week of Thursday Night Football, its celebrity endorsers will promote products relevant to their background. O’Neal will focus on his Shaquille O’Neal XLG big and tall line of apparel. Martha Stewart will promote home goods (surprise, surprise). Union’s promotion is not public yet but, it’s probably going to be her own haircare line, Flawless, that’s sold at JCPenney.

It’s a huge boost for the retail giant. After escaping from the claws of bankruptcy in 2020, last year, it set off on a $1 billion turnaround plan.

While TNT’s status is unclear, O’Neal’s Jersey Legends Productions premeired The Money Game and is working on an Allen Iverson doc. After Amazon — the new NBA partner — expressed interest in hiring the Inside the NBA team as a whole, Shaq’s new football-themed venture could keep the door open for bigger partnership.