Time Warner Cable, CNN, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network Bring the Shades of Our Community Tour to Cleveland, OH

Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) May 21, 2009 -- Turner Network Sales (TNS), the distribution, sales and marketing arm of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), and CNN, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network join Time Warner Cable in presenting the Shades of Our Community tour in Cleveland, OH. The tour comes to the 18th Annual Marc's Great American Rib Cook Off & Music Festival at the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater, Tower City, on Saturday, May 23 from NOON - 9 PM.

The Shades of Our Community tour is an unprecedented traveling "event within an event." Traversing the country throughout the summer, the tour will be featured at high-traffic community festivals and fairs and offers an array of activities, music, videos, health screenings, children's activities, and plenty of goodies and giveaways. From confronting health issues, to sharing the bonds of family, it provides the African American community, and the entire community, a chance to come together to live, laugh, and learn.

The 2,500-square-foot Shades of Our Community tour consists of five interactive tents that reflect the theme Live. Laugh. Learn. Central to all the fun will be the Time Warner Cable community tent. Attendees can enjoy continuous music, prizes for dance-offs, song-lyric and trivia contests and more. They can have their photo taken with cutout standees of their favorite TV characters. A face-painting artist for kids and lots of giveaways will also be featured. In addition, Time Warner Cable is donating $1,000 to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland to honor their efforts in the community.

"The Shades of our Community tour reflects the first-rate upcoming programming on CNN, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network and provides Time Warner Cable the opportunity to connect with current and potential consumers in a unique and unprecedented setting," said Gary Brockman, vice president of network marketing and operations, TNS. "Every attendee will be able to connect to the tour through entertaining and informative activities covering the bonds of family, joy of laughter, importance of good health and desire to have one's voice heard."

CNN's Black in America 2 Portrait Studio Tent will offer a complimentary professional photo taken with family and friends and printed on-site. Also at the tent is the CNN iReport Kiosk, where attendees will have the opportunity to record and upload their thoughts and experiences to CNN's iReport.com website. Black in America 2, the sequel to CNN's Black in America, will premiere on July 22 and 23 on CNN and CNN HD. Anchor and special correspondent, Soledad O'Brien, takes viewers across America to meet people who are finding solutions to challenges facing the African American community, and others who are shattering stereotypes about the black experience.

The TBS Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns tent will offer a personalized photo button, pop-a-shot basketball contests, prizes and giveaways. Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns is the latest Perry incarnation, a spin-off of the equally popular Tyler Perry's House of Payne. Since January, it has been the #1 comedy among adults and the #1 scripted series among African American viewers, households and key adults.

The TNT HawthoRNe tent will offer free health screenings for common health concerns of the African American community, including glucose, blood pressure and healthy height-to-weight ratio screenings, all given by certified medical technicians. The TNT medical drama HawthoRNe premieres June 16 and stars Jada Pinkett Smith as a strong but caring director of nursing. Smith is one of the first African American women since the 1970s to play the title role in a television series.

The Cartoon Network Star Wars: The Clone Wars Video Arcade takes attendees to galaxy far away by offering Star Wars Lightsaber Duels interactive gaming stations with prizes for kids of all ages. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a CG-animated series from creator George Lucas and Lucasfilm Animation. It takes audiences on new and exciting adventures combining the legendary storytelling of Lucasfilm with innovative animation. In January, the show was #1 it its time period with boys ages 2-14 and is a great co-viewing franchise, especially between father and son. The second season is slated to premiere in the fall of 2009.

For more information on the Great American Rib Cook Off and Music Festival, call 216/522-4822 or visit www.cleveland.com/rib

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

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