The Food Network, New York City, this month wraps a Chef for a Year sweeps giving one winner 52 meals (one per week) prepared and served in their home by a professional chef. Five first-place winners receive espresso/cappuccino makers and 1,000 second-place winners get cookbooks. Sponsors include AT&T, Sargento Cheese, and Ramada Hotels. Consumers enter via P-O-P forms or foodtv.com. Promotion Network, Dallas, handles.

Plano, TX-based Dr Pepper/7 Up, Inc., which last winter signed on as “official soft drink” for the 2002, 2003, and 2004 Grammy Awards, next month begins a three-month promotion offering tickets to next year’s show. The Sit Your Can at the Grammy’s instant-win game will hand out 10 trips to the show and such other music-themed prizes as CD players and music CDs. Gamepieces will be located under caps of 20-ounce bottles and inside 12-packs. Communicator Worldwide, Chicago, handles.

Meanwhile, 7 Up sister brand Dr Pepper will launch Dr Pepper Rocks, a summer effort tied to Rollingstone.com. Top winners receive various concert prize packages including a digital camera and backstage passes. Others earn Sony MP3 players, tour T-shirts, subscriptions to Rolling Stone, and free soda. Gamepieces will be housed under the caps of 20-ounce bottles and inside multi-packs. Square One, Dallas, handles.

Meanwhile, sister brand Lazzaroni Amaretto in May will slap a free CD compilation of love songs on 750 milliliter bottles. Keller Crescent Co., Evansville, IN, handles both programs.

The Certs arm of Morris Plains, NJ-based Warner-Lambert Consumer Group (a unit of Pfizer, Inc.) is hosting an online Get Close instant-win game dangling the chance to meet one of the rock stars from the new IMAX film, All Access: Front Row. Backstage. LIVE! Consumers visit certs.com to download a virtual gamepiece. Other prizes include autographed guitars, tickets to see the film, and Certs products. All cybersurfers, winners or otherwise, are entered in a grand-prize drawing for a trip to meet a rock star. Marlin Entertainment, New York City, handles.

Venice, CA-based American Honda Motor Co. presses into the event marketing arena this summer by sponsoring a concert tour featuring rock band Blink 182. The Honda Civic Tour 2001 is designed to align the newly designed Civic with the young-adult market. The band was asked to custom-design a Civic to be given away in an online sweeps at a special tour Web site (civictour.com). The site provides information about the tour, the bands, and a chance to win a trip to a concert to meet the group. Marketing Factory, Inc., Venice, CA handles.

The Joy of Britney

Teen pop sensation Britney Spears will strut her stuff for Pepsi-Cola Co., Purchase, NY, in the soft drink manufacturer’s largest endorsement deal to date. While exact terms of the deal were not revealed, media reports put the pact anywhere from $4 million to $10 million.

As part of the deal, Pepsi will co-sponsor Spears’ upcoming worldwide concert tour and use the singer in TV spots, P-O-P materials, consumer promotions, and on the Web via hyperlinks from www.britneyspears.com to www.pepsi.com. She is featured in a new TV spot in the ongoing “Joy of Pepsi” campaign that broke last month during ABC’s Academy Awards telecast. The deal was brokered by music marketing agency Aaron Walpon Entertainment, Los Angeles.

Product placement can be an ugly business: Burger King Corp Miami , provided custom boxer shorts emblazoned with its “Home of the Whopper” tagline to CBS comedy Bette. No, the skivvies weren’t worn by series star Bette Midler, but by guest star Jon Lovitz in an episode which aired Feb. 28. Product placement agency Creative Entertainment Services, Burbank, CA, arranged the deal.

Universal Studios

Consumer Products, Universal City, CA, signed a three-year licensing deal with toy maker Lego Co., Enfield, CT, to create product based on July release Jurassic Park III. The line features the Lego & Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set.

New York-City-based Child Watch of North America, an organization that seeks to recover abducted children, began offering prepaid alphanumeric pagers bearing the name FuMan Skeeto — the brand its national spokesperson, Chris Kirkpatrick of ‘N Sync, uses on a line of clothing. The pagers are the first in a line of prepaid communications products and services the nonprofit will offer to help parents stay in touch with their children. A portion of pager sales and re-charging fees will go to Child Watch programs. Users will also receive free pages from Kirkpatrick providing up-to-date information on his activities, concerts, and appearances, as well as Child Watch news. Vtech Connect Ltd., Wheeling, IL, MetroCall Inc., Alexandria, VA, and Shared Technologies Cellular, Wethersfield, CT, supply the technology.