The Drink Cart: A B2B Glow Up. Sort of.

The only ad newsletter that admits B2B is maybe eating everyone's lunch right now.

Dear marketing fans and everyone who thinks they know what a milk carton costs but probably doesn’t.

The most hilarious thing I came across this week was Kim Kardashian telling the Call Her Daddy podcast that she might just be completely out of touch. “I mean, I don’t have a concept of what like certain simple things cost, which really, um is, you know, I’d like to know a little bit more about what like a milk carton cost.”

The most intersting thing I came across was the this recruiting campaign for Base Power. It’s a great headline and the landing page keeps it going after that.

The headline hits because it acknowledges the one thing every B2B marketer secretly knows: nobody brags about working in B2B SaaS at Thanksgiving dinner (or ever?), but somebody’s got to keep the lights on, which is literally, Base’s reason for being. Also having a dog in there is perfect.

The wildest thing I came across was that campaign for Ramp that featured Kevin from The Office as a CFO in a glass box generated over 112M views across platforms and how they wrote 15-minute blocks for programming for the whole day. Very cool activation. Yes, kind of a riff on what they did for HBO’s Severence, but done more for comedy.

So is the bottom line that B2B is doing really interesting interesting stuff today, maybe more than consumer facing stuff? Is that what this week’s headline is? Perhaps.

Drink Cart Approved™ agency discussion topics

• Wine boots? Okay.

• A spec Economist ad they should do. Chat GDP.

• Movie screenings are getting wild. There’s a Bugonia screening where you have to shave your head to watch.

• The story of Winston Churchill trading £400,000 a week on margin before Black Monday is the stuff of legends.

• Is this the next great Dicaprio GIF?

The greatest moment in soy sauce branding

Ad historians will study the giant soy sauce bottole gifted to Hoshoryu after becoming Grand Champion this week. Marketers: Never underestimate the power of something ridiculously oversized. The end.

Don’t be gross Nike

Everyone seems to be fawning over these Nike Chicago marathon ads. That there super real and authentic. Real talk: there is never a reason to talk about toenails in ads. Even if it’s for fungus cures or the Chicago marathon. Keep the toes out of the discussion.

Incredible copy

This description of the Icelandic Air sandwich is better than anything I wrote this week.

This Use case ad is very good

It was shared by Sheel Mohnot who claims he doesn’t” know what it means but it’s weirdly effective in getting me to notice it.“ But as someone who used it when a boat wasn’t working this is exactly the use cae you want to coney. True story, you can read all about the ChatGPT save in the September 3rd issue: “Oh great, I’m floating down the river and I’m out of cocktails.

That’s when I pulled up ChatGPT. After a little back and forth, it served up a tidy checklist, starting with the obvious: check the fuel (done), open the tank vent (yep), then, step three: make sure the gear lever is in neutral and the safety lanyard/kill switch is clipped in.” So basically I lived the ChatGPT ads.

Making Friends over beer

Remember that Friend.com takeover the other week? This cheeky response from Heineken is pretty great. On the one hand, I’m never all that interested when advertising references itself like consumers are sitting at home wanting brand fan service. I doubt a single normal person cares that this is calling out that. But, I do appreciate the call to hang out more in person and over a beer.

Last call: The Drink Cart Cosmo

The last time the Blue Jays were in the World Series, it was 1993. Joe Carter hit that walk-off home run. There was no YouTube. No Instagram. “Dreamlover” by Mariah Carey was on every radio. And if you walked into any bar that week – or anywhere else – a drink that was likely to be seen was the Cosmopolitan.

The Cosmo was just hitting its stride in ‘93, a few years before Sex and the City would make it a full-blown cultural phenomenon. It was pink, it was vodka-forward, it was stupid easy to make. Then, like all things that burn too bright, it faded. The Cosmo became a punchline, a relic of the peak 90s.

Strip away the baggage, the frosted tips and the butterfly clips, and you’ve got a perfectly balanced drink – tart, citrusy, just sweet enough. As the Blue Jays make their triumphant return to the Fall Classic, maybe it’s time to give the Cosmo another shot.

Here’s my take on it:

• 1.5 oz vodka (lemon flavour if you’ve got it)

• 1 oz Cointreau

• 0.5 oz fresh lime juice

• 1 oz cranberry juice

• Lime wheel or orange peel

Shake hard with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Drink. Repeat.

Wash it down with a bit of nostalgia and After Burner.

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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.