The Drink Cart: The Empire Strikes Back
Get ready to unwrap some post-election holiday ads and AI surprises you'll never quite forget. This week we're serving up seasonal fun and something tart to sip on.
Dear Drink Carters
I don’t really want to replay this week’s major event, but we’re not going to avoid it either. What started with lots warnings about consumer anxiety and brands about posting or scheduled posting during the election week, ended with yet another shocking for many result. The parallels between election watching and working in the advertising industry are like the force, very strong. So yes, we’re slicing open the belly of a poor defenceless TaunTaun just to keep you all nice and warm. That’s science.
If you watch 2003’s The Snow Walker, a great little movie, and manage to find the full making of featurette, you might find a clip of me. Freezing my tail off on the frozen tundra of Churchill Manitoba jokingly offering to keep people warm using the TaunTaun method. True story, during filming I also did an unintentional Evil Knievel-style jump in a snowmobile and lived to write this very newsletter. Of course, that wasn’t captured on film (Thanks Fred!). That would have turned me into a cool stuntman. If you want to know why I hate being on sets to this day it’s because I still remember that week filming in extreme cold.
Anyway, back to elections and advertising. Here’s a couple of thoughts. First there will be the slide decks on how raising $1 billion dollars did not return the ROI the client wanted. Side question, would you hire Trumps ad team after this win? They did more with less money. Is that more of an existential question? Second, I liked how the always fun R/GA framed it up in a singular mood that the results were the equivalent of “Taking the edge off by reading the consolidated feedback”. Yes, that feels like it’s just about the same thing. It’s very familiar if you are a New York Yankees fan last week or if your key stat is, “No presidential candidate has ever lost an election after playing the Undertaker’s theme music at their rallies.”
So grab yourself a drink from the cart, get into the early holiday spirit and drink your way through some advertising and marketing news:
Giant Christmas Trucks, Greggsmas and Metaverse shopping
A couple of legendary ads for Pace and Tango you can’t unsee
Nog season, the future of news sets, Gap holiday ads and AI smells
Plus an awesome take out hat and a post-election Cherry Bounce
1. New Rules: Add Giant Vehicles to your Campaigns Now
Bill Maher has a segment called New Rules. When i saw this story about UK brand Lidl taking on Coke with it’s own festive Christmas house-brand cola truck, it reminded me of that. The new rule? Brands need to be doing more oversized vehicle stuff. I’ve been advocating for years of including trucks in your brand guides, even if you don’t need a truck for your brand. They are literally having a Christmas Truck Tour fight.
2. Its GreggsMas
Nigella Lawson is the perfect spokesperson for pretty much any food, but particularly for the launch of Greggs Christmas menu this week. Every single word just rolls off her tongue with copy like, “a rapturous riot of flavour, succulent filling, creamy sauce.” I would have liked to have been in the meeting when the creative team said, “and then two Greggs seasonal bakes will just drop magically into Nigella’s hands.” Perfect!
3. Stop trying to make the Metaverse happen
Amazon has jumped into the Metaverse offering up a holiday shopping experience of over 100 easily shoppable gifts. I’ve seen lots of people posting about the nostalgia of malls and shopping in the 1990s, but doing an elaborate interface over the top of the simplicity of Amazon isn’t something I get in 2024.
Rebranding it as “immersive shopping” doesn’t really help either. I guess that is why they are hedging their bets offering up multiple physically printed catalogues too. The catalogues are all over eBay sales now. It’s a battle between real world and faux world.
4. Ad History: Get a rope
Imagine basically threatening a hanging in a salsa ad? The 1990s were an amazing time to be alive. The story goes that after 9/11 the ad just couldn’t work anymore as everyone loved New Yorkers.
5. Ad history: St. George
I was only going to do one older ad this week but then this 1997 ad that popped into my feed really caught my eye that I hadn’t seen for a while. The ad for Tango soft drink in the UK features a few of my favourite things in ads. A person as the spokesperson, such a classic. Responding to customer complaints, better than 1-star reviews on Trip Advisor. A tough talking walk and talk that feels like one continuous shot and ends with a shirtless man and an army of supporters marching. Flags. Boxing. The White Cliffs of Dover. Fighter jets. It’s also 90 seconds.
Mini side story: Fighter jets are 100% another New Rule if there ever was one. I once pitched the idea of a fighter jet lighting using precision missiles to help a celebrity chef cook on the worlds biggest bbq, I was told to keep going. We lost that pitch btw. Do you know how awesome AI images would have been pitching that?
Anyway, did I watch the 14 minute making of video? You better believe it. What’s interesting is that despite it being the brands biggest ad - and most expensive - it won a Cannes Gold Lion and would be voted as one of the 100 best commercials of all time, despite only being shown 10 times on air before maxing out the media budget.
6. It’s Egg Nog Season
We live in a golden age of Egg Nog and chest pains. “'Tis the season, Marge! We only get thirty sweet, noggy days. Then the government takes it away again.” Leave it to Trader Joes to have introduced a limited time breakfast nog greek yogurt.
What I love about this is that they start their product description page by going hard, “In the 1700s, the British curdled milk beverage known as ‘posset hopped the pond’ joined forces with said eggs, and became the creamy elixir known as Egg Nog. Meanwhile, tart and tangy yogurt was created in ancient Mesopotamia. By the early 2000s, Greek Yogurt burst onto the grocery scene in the United States. And on October 30, 2017, these timelines collided to form the dairy delight that is Trader Joe’s Egg Nog Whole Milk Greek Yogurt.”
What this tells me is that I’ve gone 7 years without this in my life.
7. The Future of Political Results
While the networks had their usual set ups, with the big stupid desks some that were made of stars (okay, fine, star desk was cool), and start up publications did their version of that for this week’s US elections. Then Amazon went god mode with their election results set.
Transporting the studio to feel like it was in the middle of America - perhaps a bit too on the nose, but it looked slick. I will also give a special nod or shoutout to the Apple News election widget and dynamic island. These were great ways to augment the election experience and they were updating in real time perfectly. There should have also been some candidate branded cigarettes like in 1988.
8. Roast beast is a feast I can’t stand in the least
I know it’s already trending that Gap is so back. But I’m still surprised and fascinated by how many people are talking about the new Gap Holiday ‘24 ad. Comments like, “I’m not gonna lie I haven’t had an ad stop me in my tracks like this for a while“ or “It’s crazy how a song can just make you cry like that” really make me feel like a full on Grinch - like when his heart shrinks two sizes. “Whatever The Reason, His Heart or His Shoes, He Stood There On Christmas Eve, Hating The Whos.”
It’s super intersting in just how un-holiday it feels, from the “Together Again” song from Janet Jackson to the lack of holiday colours - the only real nod is the CTA to “Give Your Gift” and go shop their CashSoft knit collection. Worth noting there is some buzz that Target’s holiday decor this season says Merry Christmas. So brands, if you are listening, Christmas is officially back.
9. AI Smells
A few weeks back there was the story that AI can taste with a tongue, today it’s the news that AI can smell things. This is Osmo, a start up that uses AI to “map and create scents, believes these olfactory signatures are the key to being able to tell authentic shoes from fakes.”
Hypebeast writes, “Human authenticators have already been sniffing sneakers to spot fakes for years along with eyeing physical characteristics.” Isn’t it amazing that someone out there has a Linkedin bio that says something Senior Olfactory Authenticating Engineer or something like that?
And as I write that I’m listening to podcast about a $1 billion tech company that is focused on using AI to help make berries juicier. Here's the funny part. These aren’t berries for your smoothy - their too fancy and good for that. Premium berries sounds incredibly silly. There is also news that Wendy’s is using Palantir’s AI to forecast Frosty demand. That is the single best use case of AI I’ve ever read.
10. Hat of the week: Take Out Hat
Finding a hat this week was a struggle. But then this Springfield Cardinals Cashew Chicken hat came in clutch like a Freddie Freeman walk off grand slam. This 2023 alternate hat commemorates the 60th anniversary of the invention of Springfield Style Cashew Chicken - a combo of fried chicken, cashews, green onions and a savory sauce. There is not enough hats featuring take out food - and take out containers.
Last call: The Drink Cart Cherry Bounce
Given the election, where there were some great election night cocktail recos. This would have been a great issue to drop the orange and creamsicle throwback that is the Harvey Wallbanger - for both sides of the election. But I did it already. I’m really going to need to start a spreadsheet at this rate. I also was intrigued that places in New York are serving Frozen Spiced Pumpkin Nogs. (Also just want to say that Substack recomendations are going off this week as I think i’ve added another 9 newsletters to my feed including one called Slutti Spaghetti about pasta and italian food.
I was intrigued by this favourite from President George Washington, but where in the heck am I getting three jars of Morello cherries in Martha’s Cherry Bounce which sounds delicious. So let’s make a makeshift normie Cherry Bounce.
We all need an easy to make Cherry Bounce
2 oz bourbon
1 oz unsweetened or tart cherry juice
Splash of simple syrup
Splash of sparkling water
Serve over ice, stir and add a little lemon slice.
Pour yourself one and check out Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in High Society.
Your Bonus Drink Cart Approved™ agency discussion topics are five super quick clips, ads or links to chat about.
I’ve never been pro-Hacky Sack. But the 1984 packaging went hard.
2016’s SNL Election skit with Dave Chappelle and Christ Rock still is amazing.
I adore how they play the bagpipes as new copper pot stills arrive at this distillery.
Love this use of a TripAdvisor review on your business’s sandwich board.
Drop me a comment below or tell me how your cocktail turned out.
The Drink Cart is a weekly newsletter of advertising, pop culture, baseball and cocktails from Jackson Murphy.
Thanks for another great weekly recap!