The Drink Cart: This One's For You Tonight

This week we lose one of the greatest reality show casts of all time and console ourselves with celebrity holiday pop ups and the wonderfully 80's Beef Wolf.

Dear Drink Carters and Amateur Vanderpump Rules addicts

We are dedicating this newsletter to Bravo’s iconic Vanderpump Rules. I stumbled upon it through podcasts and never looked back. For over a decade, it was the best days of our live. A glorious, absurd window into a world where we argued about “the pasta”, who was the number one guy in the group, who slapped better Stassi or Kristen Doute and was Sheana’s Good as Gold as cringe as it sounded?

I think of all of these iconic moments and the time the cast was in New Orleans, where we are currently crafting this newsletter. I still can’t believe the made it off Bourbon street alive.

This week, we are pouring out the Pumptini, a bottle of Vanderpump Rose and maybe some goat cheese balls for the original version of the Vanderpump cast (they 100% knew what they were doing with this montage btw) which is being rebooted with an all new cast for season 12, along with the news that the ill-fated spin off bar Schwartz and Sandy’s is also closing. As one poster commented, “at its peak Vanderpump Rules was nothing less than the greatest reality show of all time.” Facts.

I was wondering what this all meant or even mattered to marketers when it came to this issue. But then I surfed over to the website and it’s sole detail is that it a) had a dress code and b) it was simply business casual. Have you seen Tom Schwartz? Did you need to state that it’s business casual? It was Lisa Vanderpump who once told the two Tom’s charged with created cocktails for their join venture, “Unicorn urine spiced martinis, that's great, but I need to see it." If I had a dollar every time a creative director ever said that to me in an internal.

But i was chatting with my faithful partner in crime, ChatGPT and we decided that three lessons from the first 11 seasons of Vanderpump Rules are the following:

1. Leverage Drama to Drive Engagement. Storytelling thrives on conflict, emotion, and authenticity.

2. Cultivate Fandom by Making Stars Out of Your brand’s personalities and struggles. One X post summarized that “the OG cast living in dump apartments, actually needing their jobs at SUR, and being genuinely horrible to each other were the best days of our lives.”

3. Expand the Universe Beyond the Core Product. The Vanderpump Rules universe extends beyond the restaurant. Lisa Vanderpump’s brand empire includes spinoffs, books, home goods, and more, creating a lifestyle viewers can buy into.

So grab a Pumptini from the cart and numb the pain of a rough week with the joy of advertising content:

• Hot Frosty copycats, Mayo wine and 1980’s Beer Wolf ads

• Chip pairing content, Celebrity pop up bars and 1970s Turkey Drops

• Pumpkin Pies, Mario Lopez CPG and needlessly fancy water filters

• Plus an Old Fashioned hat and of course, The famous Pumptini

1. Ryan Reynolds Ruins Hot Frosty

How dare you Ryan Reynolds. Surfing on the Hot Frosty trend with your stupid gin. You leave our beloved 2024 holiday classic out of your damn agency’s mouth. I’m guessing this creative pitch involved a lot of ideas on how to cast “himself as the model for a shredded and shirtless snowman.” Shameless Cringe Marketing, unlocked.

2. Last week Pizza Wine, this week Mayo Wine?

I clocked this in a lot of feeds this week. As the brand said, “Swipe to find out what’s REALLY in the bottle (subtle hint: it’s mayonnaise).” So it’s not even wine? At least Pizza Hut went for it.

3. Ad History: Beer Wolf

I’m not sure I even remember this campaign, but I could see a wonderful return to ads for Beer Wolf. For starteers, I’m going to need this Coors Light Beer Wolf Metal sign and baseball cap immediately. Somehow I missed this mini-return in merch collab a few years back.

Beer Wolf was born in 1983 as a way for the brand to own a holiday - they chose Halloween. This story of the spot pitch is pretty great, “It was a pretty racy spot at the time. I remember I went into the board meeting to present the commercial — these were people who had worked for Coors 25, 30 years. When the commercial stopped, there was total silence in the room. Then my boss looked at me and said: ‘You’re dead. This is it. You’ve gone too far. You’re a dead man.’ But I’ll never forget it – Bill Coors slapped the table and said, ‘That’s the funniest darn thing I’ve ever seen!’ And the rest is history.

4. Pringle Cocktail Pairings

This is the kind of social content you need heading into the holiday season. I can attest those Pizza Pringles are very good, I had them with a nice Cotes du Rhone red from Trader Joes. Side note, since we’re talking chips, these Horseradish Chive Chips were life changing.

5. Yes, I’m This Basic

Took advantage of the proximity of Mariah Carey’s Black Irish Holiday Bar at a Virgin Hotel. Here’s my review: The one I went to in New Orleans was kind of comical. It was set up in what looked like the overflow coffee room beside the bar with a long work table - perfect for writing your Christmas postcards to Mariah (I know). Yes it was Christmased-up, with the Instagramable moments and the photo booth with Mariah cutout.

The complimentary espresso martini with candy cane was actually pretty decent. We only heard All I want for Christmas two times. And my additional drink was her version of an egg nog concoction, called a Santa’s Rum (Rum, Cognac, Black Irish Cream, Orgeat, Egg, Heavy cream and nutmeg.) I would rate the overall experience maybe a 6/10. Branded celebrity pop ups are the future. Super silly, a little goofy and kind of half-assed.

But let’s just surf over to the official Black Irish Website and discover a world, “a new world of flavor, inspired by the heritage and spirit of Mariah Carey. When thinking of Irish cream, many may think of curling up with those they love by the fire, or enjoying it as an after-dinner drink on a cold winter night.” The Queen of Christmas had to have a beverage extension, which got me into the popup bar. It’s worth the click if only to see the photos of Mariah sipping Irish cream on the beach.

6. The WKRP Turkey Drop

In the 7th episode of the first season of WKRP in Cincinnati, originally airing in 1978, Arthur Carlson had one goal: to make Thanksgiving radio history. His genius marketing idea? Drop live turkeys from a helicopter. Spoiler alert: turns out turkeys aren’t great at skydiving, or flying at all. This is your annual reminder that what goes up, must hilariously come down.

7. Two Million Pumpkin Pies in 72 hours

Here’s a completely insane stat. Costo sells 6 million pumpkin pies in November and December and sells 2 million of those in just three days right before Thanksgiving.

8. Mario Lopez Brand Universe

Presented almost without comment. Your Christmas shopping is now done.

9. The 911 Porsche of Water Filters?

If your giant stupid Stanley cup wasn’t enough, now you can have a giant 2.5 gallon stainless steel water filtration contraption right on your counter. And don’t worry it’s just $399 plus $65 every 90 days to replace the filter. Perfect for the holidays.

10. Hat of the week: The Wisconsin Supper Clubbers

If you’ve been a subscriber since April and specifically Issue #5: Full Wisconsin Style: (also featuring the amazing French’s mustards old timey mascot character), then you know we shared a Dive Bar Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned already. Now in a clear bit of serendipity, the Beloit Sky Carp are playing every Friday next season as the Wisconsin Supper Clubbers.

I can’t believe I have to wait until after March 1st next year for this to ship, but glad I’ve locked it in. Anyway, here’s the hat. And here’s to fish frys and brandy old fashioneds.

Last call: The Drink Cart Pumptini

I find it super thrilling that last night, the day before Thanksgiving in the US, is also known as Drunk Wednesday (alternatively known as 'Blackout Wednesday, Drunksgiving or Blackout Wednesday). For marketers, given the onslaught of the period more known as BFCM, it makes total sense that bars serve 63% more liquor on this day that the do the day before. So knowing that the page has turned on a beloved reality series, it’s the day after Drunk Wednesday, we need PUMPTINIS!

The iconic Vanderpump Rules Pumptini

• 3 raspberries (plus 1 for “garnish”)

• 2 oz. vodka (it is true there is “Vanderpump Vodka” but use whatever you have.)

• ¾ oz simple syrup (yes, sweeten this up!)

• ¾ oz. orange liqueur (Now, Lisa being Lisa, she makes it with an obscure South of France liquor called Pavan, made with Petite Muscat grapes aged in oak and blended with orange blossoms. But there is no way you can find that so use Cointreau)

• ¾ oz. 100% grapefruit juice

• ¾ oz. lime juice

• Make it with all the casual indifference of a totally drunk Jax Taylor (in say season 5).

I’m not sure how all this liquid even fits into a martini glass. I was tempted to share the recipe for this Stuffing Martini, but seems too complicated. Just watch this.

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5 Bonus Drink Cart Approved™ agency discussion topics, quick clips, ads or random links to chat about:

• Remember last week when we talked about half-gallon McRib Sauce? They sold out in less than a minute, and now a large part of the supply is on eBay going for up to $150/bottle.

• What are we to make of Smucker approaching $1 billion in sales a year on Uncrustables?

• On one hand, Walmart is trendy for Gen Z now. On the other, we’re going through a De-Kardashian era.

• Is this terrifying or cute? “A little robot was caught on CCTV asking bigger robots: 'Are you working overtime?' The others said: 'I never get off work', to which the smaller robot replied: 'Come home with me’”.

• We all need this image of a dog having a beer.

“The sweet potatoes are bland” and your baggage laid bare all to the tune of Whatcha Say by Jason Derulo.

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Drop me a comment below, ask me a question or give me a reco. Or just tell me how your cocktail turned out.

The Drink Cart is a weekly newsletter of advertising, pop culture, baseball and cocktails from Jackson Murphy.