The Drink Cart: New Ad Playbooks

We're going with the flow this week and unlike Bumble and Apple, we aren't apologizing for it. Come for the spring updates by Open AI, the new portrait of King Charles and stay for the cocktail.

I’m shaking things up and trying some new things this week. I noticed that less people click on all the links I painstakingly add in (some great content you’re missing out on, people. Fine, be that way). So this week i’m just sharing the 10 things I’ve been thinking about.

Yes, there is still something about baseball. Yes, there is still a cocktail. And yes, I won’t be skipping the hat of the week. Let’s just focus on the good stuff and see how it goes.

Today’s “newsletter” we’ve unpacking:

• New standards for presentation deck design and royal portraits getting memed

• Unlocking the 2024 advertising playbook plus a credible use of stock photos

• Too many big cups and too many brands making sneakers

• Plus, the branding of flour bags, pineapples under the sea and yes, we’re breaking out the orgeat for the drink cart

1. Your deck design can be stupidly simple

Open AI’s “spring update” was a master class. Sure there was the mind blowing instant real-time translations. And yes, there was the cringe flirty voice that reminded everyone of the movie, Her. But two things are worth calling out. One, this might be the best set design you’ve seen for a presentation like this and second, the minimalist slides they used - is a revelation. Just simple things. No design. Love it. Meanwhile Google went full cringe mode. Okay, but this podcast maker is still pretty crazy.

2. Sometimes the memes don’t have to win

King Charles unveiled his very first portrait as King. The new work by British artist Jonathan Yeo is getting mixed reviews. Some have referred to it as “a portal into the nether realm and a conduit for millennia old evil non essential but desirable.” Others suggested it was giving off real Vigo the Carpathian vibes from Ghostbusters II or CNN’s Jake Tapper said the portrait was done, “apparently after he massacred a small village.” You can even get Charles frozen in carbonite.

My take: But you know what? it’s kind of bad-assed. It is cool to see something different and not classical in style.

3. The new 2024 ad playbook has dropped

Last week Apple’s new iPad ad fell so flat they didn’t roll out the media and then apologized. This week Bumble was well into it’s launch for their new campaign when they tore it all down and apologized.

Here’s your new advertising playbook for 2024:

1. Make an ad that completely polarizes at least one subset if your core users.

2. Ensure that it also enrages the the active posters in social from the ad community (or at east some of them).

3. Apologize but only after everyone’s talking about it.

4. Pull your paid media after it goes viral.

5. Calculate that ROI over champagne bottles.

4. Best use of stock photos

I don’t hate these dead simple Corona ads that use stock photos of sunsets that look like the bottles (sort of) and they just add the logo - and not too big either.

5. We’re clearly a cup bubble right?

I would imagine if YETI need to be doing big OOH campaigns like this, then the market is bubbling - bubbled, bubbled? It could be that Stanley won the “stupid big cup” war.

Sustainability or not, I still don’t know why you need to take a cup with you everywhere. It looks ridiculous. But I for sure know that if you move on from the power of social media and trends and need to pay for ads, you’ve lost the battle. I really love the look of these, but I also really want to Game Stop YETI stock now that the legendary dumb money meme-stocker Roaring Kitty is back?

6. The Sneaker-fication of everything

A few weeks ago there was mayo shoes. This week it’s waffle sneakers. Do we really need Eggo “fully loaded” shoes now? Why is everyone making shoes now? How many agency decks are “sneakers” in right now?

7. Your new inspiration is just old flour bags

Who knew old flour bags had incredible design? Apparently Chloe List who runs the newsletter Unbox Inbox. Her whole newsletter this week is a deep dive on flour. Which is all kinds of amazing. I don’t make the rules. Inspiration comes in strange places.

8. What baseball games looked like

This is what baseball looked like 40 or 50 years ago. Now we have cocktail bars in the stands, luxury seating and private clubs. But this bleacher seat view of a lazy game in Cleveland back in the day looks perfect. I mean way too many bare feet for my taste, but i can appreciate the vibes. Also the cups look amazing.

Unrelated sports story is how over the top the NFL schedule releases are now. This one for the Chargers is incredible. While the Chiefs do their schedule like the Apple Ipad ad using a hydraulic press. New England does their take on Good Will Hunting. You can see all of them here.

9. Hat of the Week

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? This. Amazing. New. Hat - part of the SpongeBob SquarePants collection at New Era. You can’t tell me this isn’t a great hat made for summer or Tiki bars.

10. Last call: The Drink Cart Mai Tai

I’d be lying if I didn’t want to suggest that for the May long weekend your drink cart should probably just be a two-four of trash canned beer, but we are civilized here.

Today we need a cocktail that makes us think summer is pretty much here with the kicker that will not make us think about how it’s nearly June already. That cocktail is the Mai Tai. As with all famous cocktails, the origin story is complicated. But I do like the hook that it was named when the first person who tried it said, “Mai Tai-Roa Aé,” which in Tahitian means “Out of this world-the best.”

We learned years ago at the Fairmont San Francisco’s Tonga Room about the power of a classic Tiki drink, in a bar that has thunder and lightening, where the band plays on a barge that moves in a lagoon and how crushed ice is transformative with certain cocktails. The Mai Tai is one of my all time favourites - and you’ll all be surprises that there is no crazy juice or anything in this.

• 1 oz dark rum

• 1 oz white rum

• 1/2 oz orange curacao (don’t have this? Substitute Grand Marnier)

• 1/4 oz simple syrup

• 1/4 oz orgeat

• 1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice

• Stir with some ice, then strain and pour over your glass filled with crushed ice and slap some mint and a lime wheel in there, repeat.

Let me know what you think of this week’s newsletter format in the comments or maybe I’ll paint you like one of your royals in 2024.

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