Drink Cart Friday Shot: World Series Erndog.
A Friday newsletter best enjoyed with game six of the World Series.
Dear shot-loving agency bandwagon jumpers and Ernie Clement enjoyers.
Oh no. I’ve slipped some baseball content into this newsletter again. But hear me out—if you’re going to watch Game 6 of the World Series today, you need a drink that’s as reliable as a certain Jays utility player in October.
Especially if you were still up until 3:30 AM to start the week during Game 3. I find that three late night World Series games, a pitch, feeling soaked from Vancouver-style rain for most of yesterday and a thousand other things and I feel like that time Megalon was dropkicked back to the stone age by Godzilla. But in less than 12 hours we’ll be watching baseball again. So who cares.
The World Series Erndog:
½ oz Blue Curaçao
½ oz Malibu Rum
½ oz Pineapple Juice
Shake with ice, strain.
Sweet, dependable and always there when you need it or a clutch hit, or some great defense. Sounds just like Ernie Clement who covers so many positions and embodies this Blue Jays team. And I recommend pairing them while watching these incredible vintage Halloween TV station bumpers before the game.
1. Ad History: Murphy’s Irish Stout (1997)
This is wonderful. In 1997, Murphy’s Irish Stout hired the team behind Ghost in the Shell to make a 60-second cyberpunk anime spot about samurais racing to a pub before last call.
It was the first anime ad ever shown in Ireland and the UK, which means someone at Murphy’s, or their insane agency, convinced their bosses that Japanese animation was the perfect way to sell Guinness’s biggest competitor. In Ireland.
2. Cracker Barrel: We Know What We Are Now
I love this. Nothing says “we understand our brand” (now) quite like telling people you should stay far away from their remodelling projects. Cracker Barrel’s response to becoming a White House meme was perfect: brutally honest and completely unbothered.
Gaining self awareness and then deploying like this is an art. I’d love to see the brand book or social playbook update to encourage this.
3. Akron Church to Browns Fans: Our Sundays Are Better
When your sports team gets dunked on by your local church. No notes.
4. Ads in the wild: Flavour Mania
Someone at Knorr decided their seasoning packets deserved a WWE-style wrestling event, so now “Flavour Mania” exists. Come smell what Knorr is cooking? Does The Rock know about this?
The wild posting campaign frames their products as champions battling “mid meals,” which is either genius or completely unhinged, more likely both. I like unhinged genius. Either way, I was on Spadina street looking like a dummy for a few minutes trying to figure it all out. So mission accomplished?
5. The greatest ash tray doesn’t exist…
And yet here we are. No line of copy has been truer. “There is no ash tray to compare with it for originality of design and all around usefulness.” Take my money.
Everything about this is perfect. The incredible 1950s style ad. The incredible BBQ ashtray. The copy. That it’s a mail in form for just $1.98? Send 10 please kind sir. Wait, you can make it a decorative planter too? Make it 20.
Shockingly, disappointingly so, at least in a quick search, there doesn’t seem to be any available on eBay.
Thanks for reading. And drinking. See you next week.
Jackson.
The Drink Cart Friday Shot is your late Friday pick-me-up for pop culture brains and ad junkies. A fast pour of ad insights and hot takes, served like a quick round at your favourite dive bar after a week of client feedback.