Whether they’re collaborating with a brand or making a cultural moment their own, our favorite food icons are not afraid to get creative (and even a bit weird) as they try to capture our attention.
- The crocs love-affair
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Crocs seem to be just about everywhere in the food industry. This past summer Hershey, Pop Tarts and Taco Bell all teamed up with the brand to deliver foodie-footwear to their loyal followers.
How did this happen?
Crocs got their first whiff of the food industry in 2020 in a headlining stunt with KFC. The shoes, which debuted at New York Fashion Week, not only looked like buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken, but smelled like it too.
- A Cheesy Star is Born
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In a pre-COVID-19 world, Velveeta’s yearly sales fell repeatedly. During the pandemic and the lockdown, they rocketed by 24%.
So Velveeta, (yes — the cheese owned by Kraft) capitalized on their moment, launched a new identity and introduced us to “The Veltini.”
Working with restaurants across the United States, the company enabled diners to order cheese-infused vodka topped with pasta — a Velveeta martini.
Gross? Yes. Well-received? Not really.
Overall, the company told CNN they were “really pleased” with the campaign.
- Snack-Food Synergy
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You can always bank on Taco Bell to create something outrageous. From partnerships with Paris Hilton and Doja Cat to a themed hotel (which still exists by the way), the joy of the Mexican-inspired restaurant seems limitless.
In 2022 Taco Bell teamed up with Cheez-It to create the Big Cheez-It Tostada and Crunchwrap Supreme. Both limited-time innovations featured an abnormally large Cheez-It, 16 times its usual size, and sold out in less than a week.
And according to just about everyone, they were delicious.
- Bologna bliss
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Remember those fake self care masks we made as kids — the ones with the cut-out, or bitten out, eye and mouth holes? Well Oscar Mayer did.
By partnering with Seoul Mamas, a Korean skincare company, it resurrected all of our childhood dreams with a bologna-inspired face mask. Whoever said that we can’t have some fun with self-care was full of baloney.
The product, available on Amazon for just $5, sold out in less than 24 hours.
- Taste the mustard
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Sometimes a pairing makes so little sense that it absolutely does, at least according to French’s. The mustard brand transformed Skittles’ rainbow into seven shades of yellow for National Mustard Day last summer.
In a surprise-hit, Food Network described their “mustard-forward experience” as “unmistakably tangy” and “oddly confusing” but in a way that “totally works.”
- Marvelous Mcdonald’s
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McDonald’s has been part of so many movies and shows it created an entire meal to celebrate. The latest addition to the list, which includes “Seinfeld,” “30 Rock,” “Space Jam” and more, is the second season of Marvel’s Loki.
This powerful duo offers fans a sneak-peak at exclusive Loki content via a scannable Sweet N’ Sour Sauce lid, leading fans to exclusive superhero content leveraging augmented reality.
They’re also transporting a Brooklyn location to the 1980s via a full-scale makeover. As if that’s a big deal, because how hard could it be?
When it comes to ingenious marketing and communications campaigns, look no further than the food industry. As influencers, these brands know how to impact and interact with culture in a way that makes us smile.
Because food is such a large part of our lives, why can’t it be fun too?