Should Auld Drink Carts Be Forgot.
The only newsletter willing to ring in the new year by ringing out old content.
Dear marketers and people who set an OOO but are definitely still checking Slack.
So far this year, I’ve written 74 newsletters. This will be the 75th and last one of the year. I want to thank anyone who has attempted to read any of them. Hell, thank you for reading one. Or half of one. I appreciate it. Even the unceremonious unsubscribes. I know who you are.
I’ve always said these newsletters are more for me than anything or anyone else. Simply committing to do them once a week, then twice a week and for a brief fever-dream period, four or five times a week with special edition baseball editions has been a wonderful way to keep tabs on this industry. I’ve changed the look and feel and style multiple times over the year. Experimented with content styles and formats.
As i’m reflecting on this, one of the many end of year lists caught my eye. In Ernie Schenck’s latest newsletter, Strange Alchemy he shares 30 Things That Are Like Red Bull For Your Creativity In 2026. It was this one that got me: “#28. Spit in the algorithm’s eye.” It’s the perfect post Christmas Pre-New Years mantra.
So I wanted to take a moment and share some of my favourite stories (in my opinion) you may have missed and maybe a few vintage champagne ads like this one.
7. Blankets at Half-Mast (March 20)
I loved this intro bit about the death of the Hudson’s Bay Company and some remarkable ads in it’s history. Hard to believed that that happened nearly a year ago.
I’m going to start with some of the unhinged things people are saying about the meltdown of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Lorne Gunter writing in the Edmonton Journal, “It’s hard to imagine a Canada without the Bay.” Or the, “This is a sad day,” wrote Harrison Faulkner on X.
Is it?
I mean there is a beaver out there somewhere whispering, “pathetic.” Likely.
Welcome to some serious brand Darwinism or the retail event horizon.
At least we’re not talking tariffs, right?
A Canadian brand going down after 350 years does seem crazy. The one time the mention of nostalgia on a brand presentation slide failed to achieve results, I guess.
I asked my trusted sidekick ChatGPT about this and it suggested, “The Canadian economy is now held together by poutine, bootleg cigarettes, and The Tragically Hip.”
Rude. But fair. It added this thought: “A ghost of a fur trader just appeared in your living room, asking if you take pelts as payment” and then suggested, “the entire universe was just a long-form ad for Molson Canadian.”
Not great.
Hudson’s Bay Company outlasted plagues, wars and 200 years of bad customer service (we guess) but somehow couldn’t navigate TikTok shop and Shopify?
My pet theory is that it was probably doomed when they stopped selling this amazing looking house branded rum. But man did they cook in the 1980s when it came to ads.
Real talk: If they can bring back this 1988 anthem version of the brand (send those trucks from coast to coast on a farewell tour) from this spot, we’re so back. Don’t forget about the pants.
Whatever you do, I encourage you to spend 10 minutes and watch this nearly ten minute Bay ad montage. And know that at some point, Leslie Nielson was an iconic spokesperson and one of the biggest stars going.
6.Scrambled Ryan Eggs (May 8)
I think you will find a pattern in my review of these newsletters. I think I love the long form rants as some of my favourite bits, and I can’t help but rip on Ryan Reynolds any chance I can get.
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.
5. An Ad Tribute to George Wendt (May 22)
Another memorable one has been in tributes to those famous faces that passed away and who appeared in ads before leaving their mark on film or tv.
This week, we raise a pint to the incredible George Wendt, the man who made barstool wisdom an art form and turned “beer” into a real cultural touchstone for generations.
The actor who spent 11 seasons as the beer-loving Norm on Cheers, died peacefully at home at the age of 76 on Tuesday May 20th. It’s no coincidence over 80 million people tuned in to watch the final episode of Cheers on that same day 32 years prior. You can’t script things like that.
Wendt was built to do beer ads. He was the ultimate beer spokesman, delivering quips as refreshing as the beer he ordered on the show. But before we get to that, we have to go deep into beer storytelling brand land.
Peter Hand was a Prussian-born Civil War vet who opened a brewery in Chicago in 1891. In an incredible move of branding originality, he called it the Peter Hand Brewing Company. Its star beer or as this creative notes “The beer” (Meister Brau) became a local favourite that even survived Prohibition.
In 1965, new owners renamed the whole company Meister Brau, Inc. and they went national. The real breakthrough was their Meister Brau Lite. This was first legit light beer, not just a watered-down version. While they made great beer, they didn’t not make money. Side note: If you make beers that looked like the Peter Hand version above, it would go gangbusters right now.
By 1972, the company sold off most of its brands to Miller. Miller kept Meister Brau around but took Meister Brau Lite, slapped their own name on it, and launched Miller Lite changing beer and beer advertising forever.
The original Meister Brau hung on as a full-strength sidekick until Miller quietly killed it off in 2005 (I’ve never wanted a beer brand Neon more than this). And that’s where Meister Brau and George Wendt collided in an explosion of pure 1980’s marketing genius
Long before beers had fancy tasting notes, or fruit in them, Meister Brau had George Wendt and one simple message: if it’s cold and it’s beer, you drink it.
His portrayal reminded us that sometimes, the most enduring brand ambassadors are those who simply show up, day after day, with authenticity and heart. He was just a simple guy. And that tagline, Nothings Richer, Nothings Smoother is beautiful. Every one of these ads is a masterpiece in normal we can learn from today.
The great thing about George, was that he could sell any type of beer. Anytime. From Smithwicks to Molson and even Coors Light. The range is god tier.
In his 2009 book, Drinking With George: A Barstool Professional’s Guide to Beer he wrote, “I’m a simple man, I don’t ask for much. Give me a nice comfortable chair, a cool breeze, a ballgame on the radio and an ice-cold beer, and I couldn’t be happier.
Truth be told, if it came down to it, I could live without the chair. A cool breeze is nice, but it isn’t exactly mandatory for a good time. And there are plenty of times when I don’t have access to a ballgame.
But a world without beer? I don’t know if that’s the kind of world I want to live in.”
4. And we were all orange (August 21st, 2025)
Marketing is a very funny business. There are those weeks were everything comes together in a colour.
Wouldn’t it be nice if our only concern in agency land was picking a side on what we thought about brands who turned sparkling and orange to celebrate Taylor Swifts new album? Don’t know what I’m talking about?
Don’t worry, Chloe Perkins did us all a solid by gathering just a quarter of what she saw brands do in one helpful social grid.
Marketers have two clear paths when trends like this start happening.
Vibe Marketers: The “awwww, isn’t it cute, aren’t we all having fun together, what great vibes we’re having for the Swifties” crew.
Cold Shower Marketers:These are the people who, when brands are drunk on vibes and orange glitter, they pour the ice water and unleash hot takes on Linkedin.
People like Kieran Hughes who drop hot takes like: “Taylor Swift changed her Instagram colour and 50 brands lost their minds. This is not strategy.”
Probably hundreds of brands but point taken. Linkedin statements like that are cat nip for Vibe Marketers. Keyboards are smashed, posts rage shared and comments drop offering up nuggets like, “My God, when did our industry become so overtaken by the fun police?”
Not the fun police! But let’s not sugarcoat it. Sometimes the cold shower isn’t just necessary, it’s the only thing separating “brand building” from a “hello fellow kids” convention. Now I say that as someone who literally wrote a POV for a client this week about the WNBA adult toy fiasco for their social team. Probably my finest hour.
So if your big idea is “make our logo pumpkin-spice sparkle adjacent because Taylor breathed near it” or “better jump on the WNBA toy mess for no reason whatsoever,” you’re not marketing, you’re fighting over clout scraps like a raccoon in a dumpster. A well dressed racoon to be fair. Again, I for one, am glad I’ve managed to include raccoon content in this newsletter again.
Cracker Barrel, Hold My Barrel
Speaking of orange-like marketing moves. Cracker Barrel just torched nearly 50 years of visual equity. A place I’ve driven by countless times, but never had the nerve to actually visit. So I don’t have any skin in the game. But to prepare for this, I started by binge watching a lot of old brand ads.
Out goes the cowboy leaning on a barrel, in comes a stripped-down wordmark you could mistake for a grocery store private label. The logo redesign comes with $700 million in renovations that chisel away the uniqueness of each renovated restaurant like they do on a Reality Show makeover. As Tiktoker Rachel Love told it, “When Cracker Barrel took away the last piece of nostalgia you had left.”
Here’s the problem: nostalgia isn’t a garnish you can swap out for a few chocolate sprinkles. For Cracker Barrel’s loyalists, that cowboy and barrel weren’t interchangeable clip art. This was brand shorthand for biscuits, rocking chairs and road-trip Americana.
The lesson? If you start control-alt-deleting the memories people actually care about, you’re not rebranding, you’re just breaking trust.
If agencies and designers want to prove they’re more than buzzword dumpster-divers in an ear of AI, maybe the real debate isn’t about Swift-coded orange color palettes or whatever trend is being flogged this week. It’s about how not to erase the very thing that made people love you in the first place.
3. Art of Cruisentology (May 22, 2025)
Looking back over 74 newsletters there is one consistent story. That is AI. When the spectacle of the new Mission Impossible came out it seemed like a great metaphor for the type of work that will stand out in an era of AI.
Now, you’re probably wondering: what is Tom Cruise doing in an ad newsletter? Great question. Beside the hair and the running? You’re right, from my my exhaustive research (read: vibes, a half-hearted Google search and a 10 minute discussion with ChatGPT), Tom Cruise has never done an ad for anything other than his movies. He’s never pitched a product. Not even in Japan. Not a rogue cologne. Or a wellness brand where you only learn to sprint better and or do your own stunts.
Honestly, I’m not convinced Tom Cruise (and yes, we’re only using his full name) has ever seen an ad in the last 30 years that wasn’t for one of his movies. I doubt he even knows what an Instagram carousel ad is. He might think “paid media” is a hit squad sent by Kittridge at this point. I know for damn sure that he is a human who as never looked at a Linkedin. I’m jealous of this ad-free zone that is Tom Cruise’s world.
But like some sort of Ghost Protocol, when your wife is in media, you sometimes get hooked up with sneak preview of a Tom Cruise movie. And that happened last night.
The film’s new popcorn bucket, requires you to connect two plastic keys because apparently, eating popcorn is more of a side quest. Mr. Tom Cruise teaches us that nothing is easy, not even your popcorn. Have you seen how that man eats popcorn? It’s incredible.
I tried my best. I couldn’t even finish mine. Now, I’m not going to spoil anything about seeing this movie, at least not any more than all the marketing has done. But I will say two things about this 8th edition of the franchise.
First, this film will hold your damn attention for nearly three hours. That’s a feat. And I like this line from Variety, “In ‘The Final Reckoning,’ Tom Cruise is out to save movies as much as Ethan Hunt is out to save the world.” You are tense in almost every scene not knowing how they’ll get out of this one and the last stunt sequence is just crazy.
Is it the best one in the franchise? No. But it’s extremely watchable, and I say this as someone who recently watched a slower more mature Vince Vaughn in Nonnas and a Hallmark movie about walking the Camino De Santiago called Journey to You.
Second, to the people who couldn’t be bothered to stay until the end of the last scene or credits, you do not care about the stunts performed in this movie. Have some respect for Mr. Tom Cruise, he’s trying to save film for god’s sake.
But this isn’t a movie newsletter. It’s an ad newsletter. Here’s the real lesson for advertisers: Tom Cruise doesn’t fake it. He runs, leaps, crashes and clings for dear life to the edge of planes and buildings because he knows the audience can feel what’s real, even if they don’t know why that’s important.
Every stunt, every Tom Cruise sprint, is a reminder that how something is made matters just as much as the end result. In an era where AI can generate ten thousand headlines in a blink, Tom Cruise gives us a different blueprint: do it the hard way. This from a man that wants to do this into his 100s. As we see later there is more AI on the way and I’ve seen at least one agnecy this week annouce their new AI production company.
The wave of AI is slowly crashing over us, and you have to be more Tom Cruise at all costs. Do it the human way. Sweat the details. Obsess over the timing. Risk something. Because real connection doesn’t come from automation, it comes from craft, from guts, from someone showing up and saying: I’ll do it. I’ll jump.
2. Not Easy Being Jeans (July 31, 2025)
Sometimes I got carried away. This one had 5 counter takes on the biggest ad controversy of the summer.
This advertising business is pretty funny. When I started thinking about this week’s newsletter, I thought I was going to be writing about how awesome it was that Astronomer hired Chris Martin’s ex wife Gwyneth Paltrow, as their new temporary spokesperson after the Coldplay cam story. At the very least I was just hoping to throw in a bunch of Hunting Wives memes into this and call it a day.
Then American Eagle’s new campaign entered the chat.
Technically it launched last week, and immediately face-planted into a massive online culture war. Now I’m not here to say that doing “Genes vs Jeans” puns in ads is any sort of high art. But the many takes on these ads reveal everything you need to know about the state of advertising and the world today. So buckle up.
American Eagle wanted “great jeans.” What they got was a viral uproar, a massive albeit brief stock price bump, possibly selling a lot of jeans, maybe causing a boycot and the ad industry proving, yet again, that it’s forgotten how to just be chill in an era where everyone mostly hates your ads already.
One Campaign, Four Takes
I see four major reactions to this ad. Some are mild. Others went far more nuclear. Let’s break it down.
The first: Normies
If they have seen them, these ads were a meh attempt at retro sexy plays on genes and jeans cliches with some baby red flags and possibly some Dune references?
As one of my favorite writers Jonah Goldberg noted, “Not one person in a thousand says, ‘I have good genes’ to suggest that they are the culmination of a generations long breeding scheme like Paul Atreides in Dune.” Side note: I could dive into a lengthy discussion over this simple idea: House Harkonnen rules like fascists. House Atreides dresses like them. But that’s a completely different newsletter or 2 bottle wine conversation.
Talk to any normie about this ad and most people will have no idea what you are even talking about. Trust me I brought it up in conversations over the weekend and most people looked at me like I’m looking at Patrick Stewart in Dune and dropping the first of two sneaky Start Trek reference in this newsletter. You’ve been warned.
Yesterday the brand surfaced and commented, “This is yet another example of how social media is just not reflective of real life,” American Eagle told TMZ. “The absurd response from some corners of the internet is absolutely not reflective of how American Eagle’s customers feel.” They told the reporter that 71 percent found the ad appealing.
Kind of exactly how Peter Hamby of Puck described this whole episode, “The Sydney Sweeney ad ‘backlash’ is a product of what cultural analysis has become in newsrooms: Writers lazily chewing on whatever is getting attention on TikTok. Grim.”
The second: Advertising People Hot Takes
This one starts off normal, until you realize most agency folks would nod along in a boardroom, then absolutely torch it the moment Slack opens when no one is listening. It’s giving Reese Witherspoon in Election vibes.
One X user wrote launched into it this way: “getting a blue eyed, blonde, white women and focusing your campaign around her having perfect genetics feels weird.” And Ashley, the Stuff About Advertising influencer, says the already controversial Sweeney was bound to be problematic. She doubles down and says, “all brands should stay away from Sydney Sweeney.”
And yet, no one batted an eye when she starred in a pretty similarly themed Hey Dude campaign last month. Where were the hot takes then? Meanwhile, Dunkin’ dropped a new spot also referencing genetics (were they joking?) and Arby’s is dropped another blonde provocative ad.
At this point I’m just waiting for advertising to do a postmodern reboot of the 1970s O.J. Simpson Dingo boot ads without any irony.
Adweek reports the most controversial spot was quietly deleted with zero official comment. Nothing says “creative triumph” like a stealth delete. But outrage, it turns out, converts better than pre-roll. Even Dory Ellis Garfinkle, CMO of global brand consultancy Siegel+Gale, didn’t hold back: “Rather than what the controversy is all about, what is more interesting is that a brand like American Eagle would stir controversy over an ad for denim.”
That the industry, still hungover from its Cannes own navel-gazing scandal, and clutching its pearls so tightly, about how a brand maybe violated some sort of Star Trek-esque Advertising Prime Directive and manufactured this outrage cycle? Shocking.
This is like finding out Tom Cruise is actually dating Ana De Armes to pump future box office receipts. Okay, second try. Like finding out Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry went on a date in Montreal. Damn, that happened too? Like Liam Neeson finding love again on the set of Naked Gun with Pam Anderson. Wait, that happened too?
You get the point.
The third: Unhinged Keyboard Outrage Famers
This group went deep on Tiktok, never came up for air. They believe this campaign is a full on, not-so coded, Trumpian white supremacy ad conspiracy. The kind of people who record themselves calling customer service to lecture them about the ad. Seriously, I loathe calling customer service as much as the next guy, but even they don’t deserve that.
They labeled it everything from tone-deaf to eugenics. From “fascist propaganda” to pretty much “dog-whistle Nazi marketing.” Which I did not have on my bingo card. I mean we all knew her initials are SS, right?
Worse, now people are talking about how she appropriated the Canadian tuxedo too. Forget elbows! Jeans up everyone! At this speed, the ad is going to have its own Netflix Trainwreck episode by September.
The Fourth: The Counter Unhinged Keyboard America is Backers
You know the ones in your feed. They definitely photoshopped or AI’d Trump into the jumpsuit and ad.
They are cheering on this as proof that woke is dead, that Trump has ushered in a new era of American excellence and that somehow involves appropriating Sydney Sweeney for their own and enjoying the ride as the culture war burns.
They’re not mad, they’re thrilled. This, to them, is proof that woke is finally dead. That Trump has reawakened some imaginary golden age of American greatness.
And somehow, Sydney Sweeney is now more than just part of the movement. She’s the patron saint of the algorithmic right. They’ve claimed her. And she’s riding shotgun as the culture war careens into traffic and grinning all the way.
So what’s my take?
My counter position follows the normies view in that we have worked ourselves into some completely manufactured spin on all sides over a mediocre at best jeans ad. TL; DR: As I said a few weeks back, get a life.
Will this actually become a full blown boycott of American Eagle? I honestly doubt it. Will the stores in New York and LA sell less? Probably. Will they sell more in Texas. No doubt about it. Will anyone be talking about American Eagle by August 15th? Probably only a few ad nerds.
There’s not a lick of middle ground. And that is the real issue. Nobody can win this. To me this is like the Kabayashi Maru in Star Trek - the no win scenario. (Editor: You’re dropping Dune and Star Trek references in the same newsletter? Me: Watch me!) I think a lot of brands are coming to terms that you’re not going to ever win, so you might as well just let ‘er rip.
Did I just drop a Star Trek clip into American Eagle Sweeney Jeans-gate? Yes. Yes I did.
Your jeans ad doesn’t just need to sell denim. It needs to trend, offend or ideally both. Outrage can be weaponized for clicks as the new KPI so your stupid pants aren’t collecting dust at the mall. No one was talking about American Eagle seven days ago. As this outrage fades, you can be outraged about other ads like using AI models in Vogue or whatever new thing sure to upset you next. I promise you, it never stops.
Remember, we could all just be laughing about this Gwyneth Paltrow spot and keeping the Coldplay breakup cam for another week. Or even just thinking about what McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets look like with a suntan. But we can’t have nice things. And the worst part is me having to give this one props because it has Ryan Reynold’s Tim Horton’s greasy egg bowl fingers all over it.
As these culture war flashpoints enter the ad world, there’s going to be even more places for people like Ryan Reynolds to exploit and make money off brands with counter ads and culture surfing narratives. It’s exhausting.
1. Let them eat nuggets (July 3, 2025)
Of all the things I enjoyed doing this review of the year, the idea of Eiffel Tower shaped chicken nuggets is probably my all-time favourite idea.
I’ve noticed a new model for success floating around. It’s not just another ghost kitchen or monthly tote bag club (is that a thing? I’m still in awe of the power of the Tote bag from our time at the Canadian Gaming Summit, “Sir you’ve grabbed 4 totes for an ad agency?). It’s built on variety, not sameness. Flexibility, not scale. And this week, two things caught my eye that somehow connect across a few centuries.
I’m very fascinated by this little bit in Emily Sundberg’s newsletter today about Molly Boz, who is redefining what a creator brand is all about as she “now has a CPG brand in Whole Foods, a wine brand, a successful YouTube business, and a fast food restaurant.” This seems a lot more interesting than just having a chain of all the same things.
I saw in another newsletter this week that the idea of subscriptions have been around for some time. One of the most notable pioneers was poet Alexander Pope, who famously used a subscription model to finance his English translation of The Iliad around 1713. Subscribers, often wealthy patrons or members of the aristocracy, would pay in advance for a copy of the book, their names sometimes listed in the published edition as a mark of prestige.
This early form of crowdfunding not only allowed authors to retain creative control and financial independence but also laid the foundation for today’s subscription economy, where access and early support often matter more than ownership.
So whether it’s a 1700s poet promising you a fresh new translation of the The Iliad or a modern creator giving you plant based fast food, wine, sauces and a video recipe at the same time, the model is always evolving. But it always starts with the same thing: people willing to bet on your next big idea.
If you’re interested in my next idea it is starting a food cart in Paris that sells Eiffel Tower shaped chicken nuggets at inflated prices to tourist kids. Don’t worry, the London version of Big Ben Nuggets is in development. Who’s in?
Last call: Three Drink Cart Cocktails to help Ring in the New Year
Try these three cocktails to get you through New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Especially if it’s freezing where you are.
The Irish Coffee (Bow To The Machines, Jan 9, 2025)
The Drink Cart Sunrise (The Snow Job, Feb 20, 2025)
Steve Zissou Rum Cannonball (Bandwagon Jumping, Oct 29, 2025)
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.