The Drink Cart: Scrambled Ryan Eggs
The only newsletter guaranteed to spike your water bottle with gin and whisper the creative team's deepest darkest secrets aloud.
Dear marketing fans, scrambled egg lovers and people still clinging on to the idea that Tim Horton’s is a Canadian Institution and Ryan Reynolds is amusing.
I do not understand why a person with a net worth of $350 million dollars needs to pretend to create a signature breakfast box line for a fast food company that there is no way they would ever eat at. And then extort them to get your agency make the ad for it too.
I also do not get the ROI of a $4 plus billion dollar chain needing to pretend to outsource it’s menu development to a celebrity. The press released said, “Tim Hortons® partners with Ryan Reynolds to launch exciting new breakfast menu innovation in the U.S. and Canada.” Innovation? What planet are we on right now. I watched at least 9 Tiktok reviews of this and this does not look good.
And the bummer of watching these Reynolds Breakfast box videos, is that it is impacting my current FYP feed of Camino De Santiago stories, people living on Oil Rigs content and a rescue dog named Tiki.
And finally, I do not understand that in 2025 in the year of our Lord, that because some people aren’t on the go and can’t eat a breakfast sandwich, we have evolved to slop breakfast boxes that look like a gas station microwave and a hospital meal had a baby.
Surely this the last gasp of Tim Horton’s as a brand, especially in the wake of their travesty flatbread pizza roll out? And this from another article sounds more like a threat: “A second phase of the Reynolds partnership will follow the breakfast boxes. Bagozzi would not reveal its timeline or contents.”
Choosing Reynold’s as your brand mascot and pretending that a smug wealthy guy wearing what is likely s $600 shirt and $10,000 watch is not kind of making fun of working people’s breakfasts all while pretending to be their cool rich friend.
I feel like Colman Domingo in Netflix’s The Four Seasons right now everytime I see Ryan Reynolds in my feed. Your face is so loud. I might not even order scrambled eggs ever again.
The only solution I could find to rectify this, is jumping on the trend of if 100 humans vs. 1 gorilla. Except in my version it’s 100 smug Ryan Reynolds as Tim’s employees vs. 1 gorilla? Okay I would 100% watch this even if it was made by AI.
Governments should be banned from doing this
Let me get this straight. In the middle of economic uncertainty our Government’s Finance department is not only making Star Wars Day content (trust me the comments are worth the read), someone felt the need to really describe this in the alt section: “Baby Yoda pictured in front of 90 Elgin. Department of Finance flag signature in bottom left corner and Canada wordmark in bottom right corner.”
And yes, south of the border The White House is posting Trump as Pope, Trump as Sith Lord and all manner of things. That doesn’t make it right. Can we just have normal, boring governments and companies that do not engage in this type of thing?
For the record, I’m only celebrating May the 4th as Dave Brubeck Day from now on. I will not be taking questions.
Rebranding the idea of a rebrand
If you want to see what a brand design system can really do, you have to scroll through Koto’s case study for their 18 months of work on Amazon. The cynic in social media will laugh at the subtlety of the update in the logo.
But if you’ve ever worked on a diverse brand system, the real work is in laying out the rules for over 50 brands, 15 markets, 364 languages and what they say are billions of touch points. And the savings is is the clear ROI here.
One thing I love is not seeing any mention of “templates”. I often hear of branding people talking about templatizing things so there is consistency. “We need the templates!” But if they design system is clear, you don’t really need to template.
Someone on their Linkedin said, “I wish we could watch a documentary of this rebrand on Amazon Prime itself.” And that while that is extremely niche, it would be a must watch for me. Like a couple of seasons of following this brand roll out? In.
Maximum Intense Product Marketing
This military system is out here making wild product videos for their solution Menance and the line, “Be a menace”. Then taking you to a beautiful product landing page. I
saw to really good comments on one posting of the video. And agree, yes this feels like if the video game “Metal Gear Solid” made actual products. And probably more importantly, “This company knows exactly who they are, exactly what they wanna say, and exactly who they wanna say it to.” More brands should be so lucky.
Ad History: The Queen City Printing Ink Company (1903-1907)
Feast your eyes on these advertisements (you can’t call them ads, it must be the full name “advertisements” here) for Queen City Printing Ink Company. These appeared in a trade journal that started in 1884 and published until 2011.
These very contemporary feeling illustrations are from Augustus Jansson designed to show off the typography and colours of this Cincinnati company. The volume of ads and the way that it shows off the company’s skill is wonderful. Their ideas in the of content series showcasing parades, ponies and other creatures was made for the world of social media.
I found these from one of my all-time favourite reads, Messy Nessy. You never know what you’re going to get from that site, but it’s always something interesting. So glad I opened their email this week.
Last call: The Drink Cart Throwback Floradora
I’m not even sure how I came to this one but kind of paired so nicely with the Queen City Printing Ink Company story. And as luck would have it, I actually have raspberry syrup in the Drink Cart stockpile, so here we are.
This drink’s got old-school throwback glamour shaken right into it. Named after Florodora. A turn-of-the-century (and by turn of the century we’re talking 1899 kids, not 1999) musical that stormed London and Broadway.
The real stars weren’t the songs, but the six showstopping, parasol-wielding glamazons known as the Florodora Girls. Tall. Stunning. Think more Victorian fever dreams dressed in pink and black. They didn’t act. They didn’t even sing much. They just showed up. Legend has it that each of the originals married a millionaire. And honestly? Respect.
At any rate this seems like a kind of an easy to make spring drink. Think of it like a fancy Tom Collins that is pink and you top it with some ginger beer vs. soda. So fun right? I feel like you could make this into a fun ready to drink brand for sure.
Here’s the recipe:
2 oz gin
1 oz lime juice
1/2 ounce raspberry syrup
ice and a tall glass
Top with ginger beer
This week while you’re drinking your Drink Cart cocktail and contemplating the weight of AI and Ryan Reynolds on your feeds, pour one out for Skype. The first video chat tool we ever used regularly has finally, mercifully, officially shut down this week. I’ll miss it’s little noises. So pour out a Floradora out of respect to the OG. Skype walked so Teams could annoy you for the rest of time.
Drink Cart Approved™ agency bonus discussion topics
You haven’t seen food reviews until you’ve experienced a Joe is Hungry video.
The CEO of Fiver just unloaded on his user base over AI.
Your annual reminder that the interfaces from the original Star Wars were legit.
This 2005 Tom Cruise video from the MTV Movie Awards is incredible still.
The Drink Cart is your weekly fuel for pop culture brains and ad junkies. A cocktail of ad insights and hot takes that feel like you’re hanging at your favourite dive bar after launching your latest campaign.
Tiki TikTok content has been the best part of my week.