The Drink Cart: Not A Hot Dog

Everyone is talking about the new AI, except Canadians. We are out here putting the maple leaf on everything and hoping for the best.

If you came back for more insights from the Hallmark Extended Universe and this week’s premiere of what I can only imagine is the first non-time travel Hallmark rideshare storyline dropping on Saturday night? In’m sorry, ot today. But if you wanted a few rehashed Silicon Valley references that everyone else is already using, you’re in the right place.

Everyone is talking about DeepSeek. Yes that lovable “Not A Hot Dog” new version of ChatGPT. While not quite as useless as Jian Yang’s app, everyone’s going crazy for something that already does the exact same thing as a bunch of others. But cheaper? Jiannnnnn Yanggggggggg! No more palapa for you!

Sure, it’s a new free AI LLM. Yes, it’s the most downloaded app in the Apple app store. I love that for us. Did it manage to accomplish it for less money and seemingly, using incredible engineering and less computing power, almost certainly. Is this app recording every bit of data you enter including your keystrokes? 100%. I imagine there are agency staffers across North America telling someone, “Love the Deepseek app, using it to organize all my finances and passwords. They make it so easy.”

So if you’re A NVIDIA stocker purchaser (congrats), either you’re in an existential panic over your retirement fund or going all in on buying this rare dip. Maybe you enjoyed (or even liked) a vague explanation of all this in the form of a Good Will Hunting meme. How do you like them apples?

Let me give my hot take: If you are at an agency right now, you do not need to care if DeepSeek makes AI 10 times cheaper. It’s already crazy cheap to have an AI assistant to bang ideas off of and ask about how long it is until baseball season all day long.

Sure, as Ashley Bolser writes in The Drum, “Marketing teams could deploy AI across every customer touchpoint, analyze every campaign in real-time, and personalize every interaction without watching the meter tick." But all this is what Mark Hanna in Wolf of Wall Street calls a, “Fugayzi, fugazi. It's a whazy. It's a woozie. It's fairy dust. It doesn't exist. It's never landed. It is no matter. It's not on the elemental chart.”

What I think you’ll find me saying over the coming weeks and months is this. I love AI and using every single day. I’m even more committed to ensuring that human crafted content and marketing is and will be more important than ever. There is a tonnes of things AI can do to augment that, downloading DeepSeek isn’t the solution to that. The one lesson I think is the most interesting? Small teams can beat out the big companies. There’s an agency metaphor in there somewhere.

Here’s a very interesting and related stat: There is an 11-21% decrease in purchase intent when you use the word, “artificial intelligence” in the product description.

When the AI that’s taking over your job gets it’s job taken over

Oh you thought I was done talking AI and DeepSeek? Not at all. This graphic from Mike Middleton really does tell you everything you need to know about DeepSeek taking over the AI game.

And it certainly tells you more than the AdAge article “What the DeepSeek AI frenzy means for marketers.”

If by “marketers” they mean some holding companies opining on AI, but there isn’t one interesting thing a marketer would find useful in this article. Oh, because of DeepSeek the cost of a million output tokens of text that the AI churns out it will cost $2.16 vs. OpenAI’s model which costs $12.

I’m sure all that will be important (lower cost, less computing power, more efficient AI) to big tech and big agencies and will trickle down to smaller agencies. And i’m sure at some point this means agencies can (and will) start to build their own custom Ai’s so they can do more personalization, automation and optimization.

But there’s nothing in DeepSeek for a copywriter that is any different other than the price, and your data being on a server in China Tiktok-style. So if your agency copywriter is trying out DeepSeek, just tell them to get back to work on making good ads.

How tired will we be of Canada First branding by the end of Q1?

So tired. January is still limping for a few days and we’re already seeing brands like Denny’s go deep on their 100% Canadian Beef. The challenge with this is that now I have to wonder what was the beef before? Not Canadian? Or not 100% beef?

I’m all for a renewed sense of nationalism (it’s about damn time) but it’s going to get real tired in the advertising space if brands are climbing over each other to solidify they are Canadian brands or trying to find the next Canada is not for sale hat. This week my feed has also seen a bunch of people absolutely falling over themselves cancelling trips to America and selling their houses in Florida. The Not a Hot Dog analogy works equally well here.

Already Heinz had to educate the Prime Minister that the famous ketchup used Canadian tomatoes and was made here. I feel like this meme about how the EU feels while America and China battle over AI superiority is basically us. The maple leaf is our bottle cap technology (and I’m not going to dignify that by making it in a meme, it hurts too much).

Three things that don’t make any sense

First, if I show up in your house and you have the new LEGO® Icons French Café displayed on a shelf, I'm immediately out, and blocking you on all channels. This looks like if AI decided what a Parisian cafe might look like then turned it into 1,100 pieces to put together. I hope you step on every single Lego cafe piece for all of eternity.

Second, there is absolutely no reason for Progressive to introduce soup in candy form to mine the completely made up non-holiday of National Soup Month. “The limited-edition confection, which launched on January 16, 2025, offers a portable way to experience the flavors of broth, chicken, vegetables, and egg noodles in candy form. Each pack contains 20 individually wrapped Soup Drops, packaged in a container styled after Progresso’s signature soup can.” It makes me mad that its continually sold out. You people are nuts.

And Finally we have Post Malone, a great recording artist who needs someone to tell him he can say no to a brand. Certainly not Oreo. This guy is the Hamilton of brand endorsements, he’s doing them like he’s “not throwing away his shot”. And it’s a salted caramel and shortbread-flavored twist cookie?

Real talk Postie, you don’t have to do this. For brands, if your campaign has someone who is a bunch of other brands ads, I emplore you to find someone list hungry or thirsty. And if you go the Oreo website you’ll be in shock with all the wild stuff they are doing.

Two things that does make sense

Fine, i’m not grumpy about everything, just most things. Like this new Cadbury Dairy Milk packaging, I’m saying it is wonderful. It divides the chocolate bar to reflect each person’s contribution in a variety of things. It’s a made to share idea that really looks great. The “Who presented the slides” vs “Who took notes” is perfect. I saw a comment that said, “This isn't just packaging - it's storytelling, emotion, and connection in a single moment.” And that’s why it works so well.

I have no need to ever buy or consume tomato juice. No, not even at 35,000 feet because someone says it tastes better there. But this design for Longbottom & Co. tomato juice goes way harder than it ever needs to - and the poster with the line “A bloody good time” is so good (the website is less fun, pitty).

Hat of the week: German Style Pretzel Drinking Hat

I love a good pre-order hat. This is the new hat for the game when the Reading Fightin Phils become the Reading Prost. Pennsylvania? Pretzels? Beer steins? A hat on a hat. We’re all in on this one. And in keeping with the theme, the team also have a hot dog hat.

Last call: The Drink Cart Singapore Sling

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had Singapore Slings at the famed Long Bar at Raffles Hotel in Singapore two times. It’s been renovated and increased in size since the last time I was there and looks extra fancy now. “In 1915, resourceful Raffles bartender Ngiam Tong Boon decided to create a cocktail that looked like plain fruit juice but was actually infused with gin and liqueurs.”

It’s a great drink. A perfect drink for any hotel bar too. Because of the gin, it’s like a Tiki-drink, but not. And in case you took a look at the menu, I can save you a bit of math, the Singapore Sling is now $43.69 in Canadian dollars. The first time I was there over 20 years ago, It wasn’t that much - it was outrageous, but here we are in the cocktails for over $40 range. And if you want to really blow some money, you can get a Vintage Sling featured vintage spirits from the 1950s. It will costs you $200. I mean, that is absurd, but also kind of cool. There’s worse things to spend your money on.

In a fascinating recent episode of the Cocktail College podcast on the drink said the bar serves up 1,000 of these cocktails a day. That’s not a bad business. Over on Linkedin, I’ve got an off the beaten path story of that cherry they use in the Singapore Sling (yeah, i bolded this so you click on it, go read it and drop a little thumbs up). It’s an incredible brand, run by a family seven generations strong. A story that will have you thinking about it every you have one in your drink.

So here’s your Singapore Sling recipe

• 1 oz Gin

• 1/3 oz Bénédictine

• 1/3 oz Cherry Liqueur

• 1/3 oz Grand Marnier or other orange based liquor

• 1/3 oz Grenadine

• 2 dashes Bitters

• 2 oz pineapple juice

• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice

• And of course, The Original Marashino Cherry from Luxardo

As you’re making your cocktails, may I suggest pairing it with this wonderful find. I give you Guy Lafluer’s 1979 disco album. The first track is an absolute banger.

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Drink Cart Approved™ agency discussion topics

• There was a time when you could get a VHS copy of Ghost for $5.99 when you bought any McDonald’s sandwich.

• I love that people are now writing in the open about how ridiculous parlay bets are.

• I don’t care about Starbucks hand writing things on the cups, but I’m interested in it being about coffee again. Watch “Not My Name” the new Ad from agency Anomaly.

• Mini Ad History: That time Shaq carried a Pepsi vending machine around in print ads.

• Does your brand need a social show? Probably.

• No, I don’t want you to make it sober chic Perrier. Read the vibes.

See you next week my Drink Carting friends and Wet January enthusiasts.

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