GASTRO-NOMICS
In just a few short years, the chain behind the Beefy 5-Layer Burrito has managed to become an obsession of vegans and vegetarians
Earlier this month, like Simba returning from exile, Taco Bell’s potatoes were officially restored to the company’s menu board — Spicy Potato Soft Taco and all. This wasn’t a small-fry development guided by a simple seasonal shift or some limited-time promotion; it was the result of a several-month fusillade by the brand’s starch and vegetarian loyalists, who had been furious at the company for removing potatoes last summer.
Ever since its controversial “menu simplification,” Taco Bell quite literally couldn’t post on social media without encountering some grief about bygone potatoes. …
Off Brand
Brands rush in to help end the pandemic with vaccine doughnuts and other marketing stunts
Skeptical about the Covid-19 vaccine? Or too lazy to get jabbed even though you’re eligible? Well perhaps you can be persuaded by… free doughnuts. This is apparently the thinking behind a new promotion from Krispy Kreme: Present your vaccination card at its U.S. locations, the Wall Street Journal reports, and you’ll get a glazed doughnut on the house.
The Journal suggests this may mark a new phase in brands’ attempts to find the right pandemic-era tone. The time for caution and concern is fading into a mixture of optimism and cajolery — get your shots, consumers, so we can all…
Trend Mill
The fast-food giant’s revamped packaging shows it’s still too timid to fully adapt to the times
This is shaping up to be the year of the fast-food rebrand. First, Burger King unveiled a sharply executed redesign on January 7, announcing a total revamp across the entire brand, from its logo and packaging design to an updated digital and social media presence. It was an immediate smash hit, nodding back to the company’s classic 1969 logo while signaling the brand’s transition into a more digital-friendly brand. Less than a month later, on February 16, Burger King’s archrival McDonald’s followed suit and revealed a fresh new take on its product packaging. …
Comment of the Week
Marker readers weigh in on the explosion of corporate merch drops
Over the past year, all manner of companies have been selling stuff with their brand splashed all over it. A Peloton “kitchen sink tote” by Oliver Thomas will set you back $150. A collectible bottle of Tesla Tequila is going for $250. And Stouffer’s, of mac-and-cheese fame, is selling an adult sweatsuit (we kid you not) that can be yours for $95. Welcome to Merch Madness.
Since when did every company become a merch-hype machine? It’s a question that writer Adam Bluestein investigates in his recent feature in Marker, “How Supreme-Style Merch Drops Took Over Corporate America.” “The same boredom…
Off Brand
An angsty public is turning the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines into a dangerous brand battleground
Worldwide, there are 11 vaccines available to combat Covid-19. And according to some observers, this has led to a problem: “People are doing what they do with cars and peanut butter and Tinder profiles — comparison shopping,” an On the Media segment this weekend declared. Host Bob Garfield noted that among his friends and family in Serbia, where people apparently have access to options from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca as well as Chinese and Russian vaccines, some choices have more “status” than others. “It’s conspicuous vaccine consumption,” he said.
Similar thoughts have been burbling around social media, suggesting “people are…
Why are massive brands and startups selling Tesla shorts, McDonald’s chicken nugget pillows, and Stouffer’s hoodies?
In May 2020, confronting a raging pandemic, fierce competition from a slew of new entrants in the alternative-beverage category, and a limited marketing budget to support the launch of three new drink flavors, Ben Witte, CEO and founder of Recess, a maker of CBD-infused sparkling water, did what the head of any up-and-coming direct-to-consumer brand might: He dropped a merch line.
Featuring a “last two brain cells” hoodie ($65), a “cool your horses” T-shirt ($35), an orange “on recess” beanie, and a pair of $18 “around the block” socks (“for going nowhere in particular”), the line was designed, says Witte…
Off Brand
Why one of the most important technological objects in a democracy — now at the center of every conspiracy theory — has been such a sleepy industry
Before the most recent presidential election, companies in the business of voting technology were hardly household names. That changed as the various wild and unfounded claims (lies) by Donald Trump and his allies about the vote being “stolen” were amplified by pro-Trump media outlets.
Thus the names Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic did become recognizable in plenty of households — and these companies have lately launched aggressive lawsuits to defend their brands. Dominion has filed separate $1.3 billion defamation suits against pro-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, as well as MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Separately, Smartmatic filed a $2.7…
Comment of the Week
What Marker readers have to say about the marketing tactics that make it near impossible to buy limited-release Nikes
Nike’s SNKRS app — the marketplace for the company’s limited-edition releases—has gained notoriety on social media among sneaker fans for creating bottlenecks and making it virtually impossible for customers to check out and snag a pair. Earlier this month, “Michael Jordan’s son Marcus released a limited-edition version of his dad’s Air Jordan I ‘Freeze Out’ sneaker that hardly any actual consumer was able to purchase,” writes David Dennis, Jr., senior writer for LEVEL and author of the forthcoming book, The Movement Made Us.
Dennis, who has repeatedly tried to purchase sneakers via the SNKRS app (to no avail) has likened…
Off Brand
The chain continues to deliver in hurricanes, pandemics — and now energy grid disasters
The recent Texas weather disaster and subsequent energy grid meltdown left many losers in its wake: residents, power companies, government regulators, and Ted Cruz. But the tragedy also produced at least one clear and unabashed winner: H-E-B, a 116-year-old, family-owned regional grocery chain based in San Antonio and already popular throughout much of the state.
At a moment when Mother Nature offered peril and institutions seemed helpless to respond, the mainstream grocer was open for business with stocked shelves, serving as an anchor of basic competence — and received glowing coverage for doing its job. It’s a halo effect most…
Internet Nostalgia
Burger King’s surreal ad campaign circa 2004 transformed how we thought about viral online marketing
In part two of our new series on the internet’s olden times, we return to the dawn of viral online marketing. This is the next installment of our weekly Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at stories that captured the imagination and attention of the internet for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. The world of the internet moves so quickly that things that happened five years ago might as well be black-and-white newsreel footage at this point. This series looks back at those phenomena and what they told us about the internet…
