Five Mars, Incorporated salty snack brands — Cheez-It, Pringles, Club, Town House and Combos — have been named Official Salty Snacks Providers and Proud Supporters of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Team USA, with Cheez-It and Pringles set to lead activation efforts as the Games approach. The deal also includes a companion partnership with NBCUniversal to support its multiplatform coverage of LA28.
What the Deal Covers
The partnership positions Mars Snacking's portfolio across the entire LA28 Games ecosystem, reaching athletes, volunteers, fans attending events and viewers watching from home. The brands will appear at competition venues and throughout Games hospitality settings — a scope that holds direct relevance for foodservice and hospitality operators supplying or serving within those environments. For snack and beverage buyers in stadiums, arenas and event catering, high-profile sponsorships like this frequently drive consumer demand signals that ripple into concession and retail planning well ahead of the event.
"We're proud to bring Cheez-It and Pringles to the LA28 Games, giving fans more ways to celebrate every kind of greatness that makes the Games so meaningful," said Anton Vincent, President of Mars Snacking North America. The NBCUniversal layer adds a broadcast and streaming dimension: Mark Marshall, Chairman of Global Advertising & Partnerships at NBCUniversal, noted that Mars Snacking's portfolio has "long been woven into" at-home viewing moments — signaling a broad media spend that will keep these SKUs top-of-mind for grocery and foodservice buyers throughout the two-year run-up.
Operator Implications
For restaurant and hospitality operators, major multi-year sports sponsorships of this scale tend to reshape category conversations at the distributor and procurement level. As Cheez-It and Pringles receive sustained Olympic-linked marketing investment through 2028, operators can expect increased consumer familiarity with these brands in snack and appetizer contexts — particularly relevant for sports bars, quick-service concepts, hotel grab-and-go programs and event catering menus where salty snacks anchor impulse purchases.
Mars describes itself as a $65 billion-plus family-owned business following its combined operations with Kellanova, giving the snacking division substantial resources to activate the LA28 partnership across consumer touchpoints. John Slusher, CEO of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties, framed the fit plainly: "Nothing brings people together like incredible athletic moments and great snacks."
The LA28 Games, scheduled for Los Angeles in 2028, will mark the city's third time hosting the Olympics and its first-ever Paralympic Games — a scale of event that hospitality and foodservice professionals across Southern California are already beginning to plan around. Operators tracking snack category trends in foodservice and stadium and event hospitality strategy should note that branded partnership activity at this level typically accelerates 18 to 24 months before an event, making now a logical time to assess menu positioning. Food & Beverage Magazine has covered the broader Kellanova-Mars integration and its implications for the snacking supply chain.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
