The Drink Cart: The Spicy Candy
Two weeks into the year and marketers are already going ham. Brand refreshes, misspelling and actor stunts. Let's jump like a cannonball into dry January.
If you think this week is more Severance inspired dystopian introductions, you’re not wrong, maybe this newsletter is some sort of mind game or loyalty test, similar to the idea of “The Spicy Candy” from episode four season one. Never mind this is just a newsletter moderately excited for Season 2 thanks to the power of marketing!
This week you’ll notice a few changes. First, maybe a few less items this week - but how would you know, i’m not numbering them anymore! I tricked you! Am I shortchanging you on content? Busted, guilty as charged. This is like the shrinkflation of Drink Cart, but you get what you pay for, and these fewer items, will actually be a little longer and likely will get longer as we march forward. Sounds reasonable right?
One of my favourite writers described how I do this newsletter as, “Dim Sum Style—i.e. small, digestible, discrete bites. That sounds like something that could be called Hannibal Lecter Style, but that’s a little different.”
Stats that make you go hmmmm. Here’s a stat that is going around this week from an article on sports betting that I keep thinking about, '“On average, households spend $1,100 a year on sports betting while cutting back on investments and oftentimes spending more on cable TV and other forms of entertainment.” No wonder the airlines are partnering with gambling companies now.
The Strange Case Of The Big Game Refershment
Coors light started their Super Bowl campaign this week with an own goal? Wait, that’s not even the right sport. After the internet went ham on them spelling something wrong they answered in press release saying, “We had a Case of the Mondays. This morning, we released a series of ads leading up to the Big Game intended to make Coors Light look even colder, and we’re aware they included a bit of a blunder. In the ads released across Canada and the U.S., there was an unfortunate misspelling of “Mountain Cold Refreshment” as “Mountain Cold Refershment.”
Coors Light wants to thank everyone for letting us know about the errors. Mondays, am I right?”
Side Note: We’ve all been there. I’m still smarting about that one time nearly 20 years ago we had over 1,000 bottles of branded water where we spelled the brand name incorrectly. Ouch. They didn’t go out to the public, but that’s how this business goes sometimes. They should still launch a Billy Ripken-style baseball card error can with this slogan that are worth something.
The Daily Mail took a different, less forgiving attitude, “Furious Coors Light fans are all saying the same thing about latest advert: 'How does this happen?!'“ Look, if you’re furious or upset about an ad with a spelling error, you need better things to do. Linkedin was a dumpster fire of hot takes on how stupid they must have been.
As we now know, this was no error. It was across all mediums, so this wasn’t a case of a whoop-see no one caught it. This was deliberate marketing. We quickly went from people losing their minds over the error, to advertising people losing their minds over how clever this was from their agency Mischief at No Fixed Address. Like Coors Light, marketers need to chill.
It turns out they were just setting us up for the coup de grace. What we missed was the capital C on the word case and the word Mondays in the press release that gave it away to a literal case of rebrand Mondays Light.
Flashback: Remember in 1998 when Chips Ahoy made 1,000 packages without the chocolate chips, then offered a $1,000 bounty for every one found? This Coors Light stunt is giving Chipless Chips Ahoy vibes without all the charm of the 1990s.
My take: Let me rant for a second here. I’m betting many of these same people who are also mad at Facebook for eliminating fact checkers. They likely are the same people who talk about how there is too much misinformation in the world. I’m guessing many of the same people now cheering this “we got your attention” at all costs marketing stunt won’t or can’t connect the dots between these two things.
Now, I do think it was a pretty great stunt, but I don’t spend my time talking about misinformation. That said if your ad campaigns live in a world of misdirection and disinformation, how will anyone believe you when it really matters - or you need people to know you aren’t just pulling their leg? You can do this a few times, and then people won’t believe anything you share.
The Wonderful Art of Completely Uselessly Mid Branding
We’re only in the second real week of the New Year and already brands are refreshing - not just refreshermenting. The internet’s response to this Walmart refresh is pretty typical as what the average person could even tell about this. Morning Brew joked, “A bold and daring new direction.”
Agency Jones Knowles Ritchie working with internal creative teams offer up, “a new identity that celebrates this people-led, tech-powered omnichannel evolution.” Whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.
Peanut Gallery Opinion: First, doing a brand update like this is a massive undertaking. Walmart has over 10,000 stores. There is a lot to do, even if you’re just bulking up your brand mark and updating your colours. So I’d say this is fine. Nothing special. You know you are going to get flack by having this as news. It’s not bold enough to be a story, it’s more like repainting your house every few years. It feels like of like Harry and Meghan showing up to see the devastation in LA and then claiming they didn’t invite the press. Perhaps, they should have started by misspelling Walmart at minimum.
The Unhinged Stunt Universe of Apple’s Severance
My feed was clogged the last few days with the images of the cast of Apple TV+’s show Severance playing themselves in a glass box in the middle of Grand Central Station.
So a show that features themes about privacy and surveillance is doing performance art marketing stunts you can watch and spy on. One intersting thing is seeing Apple show off decidedly un-Apple looking computers, “The computers weren't sleek Apple monitors but old-school data processors.” I hadn’t thought about it like that before - even knowing there is an Apple store there, just around the corner.
Can you give out acting awards for this? You gotta watch Adam Scott giving the performance of a lifetime when he messes up a Lumon computer or is punished to stand in the corner.
One social commentator summed it up this way, “imagine running late for your train and you’re like ‘sorry, i had to watch mark s from severance use a carpet sweeper!’” Another said even the empty “set looked like a modern art installation.” While another asked if the actors would return again a security guard responded, “Lumon Industries doesn’t employ actors. Please learn more about the company through this pamphlet." The pamphlet came with the requisite Lumon tote merch, of course. I loved that someone suggested that doing this type stunt with a kitchen fight from The Bear in the middle of Chicago would be equally amazing.
You can also play with this online Severance Balloon site.
The lesson? First: Commit fully to the world or universe you are creating no matter what. Every little detail matters. Second: Prepare for the year of endless decks full of ideas that will riff on this experiential moment and you’ll roll your eyes by April.
The Brad Pitt AI Scam Of Our Dreams
Remember last week when I was like, people know how to detect AI now. Turns out, some people can’t. A woman in France was scammed out of $1,227,702 CAD trying to help Brad Pitt who had fallen on hard times and was in the hospital based on these incredible AI images. Be careful out there.
Ad History: 1991 Sizzler Promotional Video Excellence
Last week’s newsletter was a bit of a downer. When this came into my feed, I knew I needed to share this bit of 90’s nostalgia. I’ve watched about a dozen times, I’m obsessed with this timeless filmmaking and brand masterclass.
Hat of the week: Binghamton Bathtub Donkeys
This week was National Hat Day, and I didn’t even get to wear one - it’s toque season in Toronto. At the same time, Minor League Baseball is dropping a lot of their fun hats for the year. Take this pretty incredible Binghamton Bathtub Donkeys hat for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. The brand is apparently inspired by the fact that, “it’s against the law for donkeys to sleep in bathtubs in the State of New York?”
Last call: The Drink Cart “Overpour January”
if your are in Dry January denial, or maybe at the 1/2 way mark of this month and ready to make some pour decisions with a Manhattan’s naughty cousin, or maybe Negroni’s drunk uncle this half-hearted Boulevardier
So here’s your antidote to Dry January:
2 oz bourbon
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz Amaro or Cynar
A few extra dashes of Angostura bitters
Serve on the rocks with an orange twist or slice
Drink Cart Approved™ agency discussion topics
A company now valued at $10.2 billion is striving to bring back the Wooly Mammoth by 2028. Okay.
Dry January be damned, there is a company called Last Call breaking open the new alcohol wellness category.
A deeper look than you ever needed about the art of “Mr. Beast face.”
Marketing Shocker: “When you lock things up…you don’t sell as many of them”
Before you ask, no I’m not getting on the Tiktok replacement Xiaohongshu. This is madness.
See you next week Drink Carters.
The Drink Cart is a weekly newsletter of advertising, pop culture, baseball and cocktails from Jackson Murphy.
Nice weekly recap!