FIVE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK
This week’s hot takes on hot topics in experiential marketing cover tot-protecting pants, “Gaychella” and pay-what-you-want pizzas.
NEWMAN’S OWN IS DELIVERING PIZZA WITH PURPOSE
Unless your diet consists of ramen and oatmeal, you’ve likely felt the effects of sky-high food prices in recent months. Enter: Newman’s Own’s Pay What You Want Pizza truck tour. The “give it all away” brand, which donates 100 percent of its profits to the Newman’s Own Foundation, is traveling the U.S. and inviting consumers to choose their own price for a slice of pizza. All proceeds will go to the foundation, whose mission is to “nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity.”
The Pay What You Want Pizza tour kicked off on June 20 and will stop in 22 cities throughout the summer, including Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago. Attendees can expect a sampling of Newman’s Own’s variety of pizzas, with each stop featuring three to five different types of ’za based on local availability. Eating pizza for charity? Sign. Us. Up.
HELL YES, CHEF! STELLA ARTOIS RENEWS ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH ‘THE BEAR’
With the highly anticipated season three of FX’s “The Bear” launching on June 27, Stella Artois revived its partnership with the hit show just in time. Last week, the duo teamed up for a second year to deliver an upscale culinary experience based on the series and its main characters. The pop-up event in Los Angeles featured concoctions including Thai-Italian Crispy Tacos, Chinese Sausage Sicilian Pizza and Fried Sweet Potato whipped up by James Beard Award-winning chefs Justin Pichetrungsi and Chris Bianco, who served menu items inspired by Carmy and Sydney’s “Chaos Menu.” Meanwhile, Corey Hendrix, who plays “Sweeps,” teased the upcoming season.
The pop-up was a continuation of Stella’s Let’s do Dinner: Summer Series, which offers fans unique crossovers that fuse food, lifestyle, music and entertainment platforms through a series of exclusive events around the U.S.
But the dining event was just the start. The partnership between the brand and “The Bear” will continue throughout the summer and includes an online Stella Artois Drop Shop that serves as a hub for all things experiential and offers giveaways, such as custom chalices and “The Bear x Stella” aprons. Stella will also offer custom content streamed exclusively on Hulu before episodes of the show featuring Sweeps (Corey Hendrix) and Sugar (Abby Elliot) discussing their experience filming the series. To boot, throughout season three, Stella Artois libations will be featured on the show during key moments. All we can say is: Hell yes, chef!
ALL THINGS GO—AKA ‘GAYCHELLA’—IS DEBUTING A SISTER FESTIVAL
Maryland’s All Things Go Music Festival will not only mark its 10th anniversary this year, it will also celebrate the unveiling of a sister All Things Go fest in New York City at Forest Hills Stadium. The sold-out events will be hosted concurrently Sept. 28-29, bringing hordes of millennials and Gen Zers to what organizers bill as the fastest-growing independent music festival in the U.S., put on by “the authority” in female and LGBTQ+ representation in music curation.
The event, which fans have lovingly nicknamed things like “Gaychella,” “All Things Gay” and “Lesbopalooza,” will draw 40,000 people to the Columbia, MD, show, and 30,000 to New York. Attendees skew female, with 78 percent of the event’s demographic identifying as women, while 72 percent of the Maryland lineup and 94 percent of the NYC lineup is inclusive of female/non-binary representation. Rock on.
Photo: Courtesy of All Things Go Festival
CROWN ROYAL ON THE ROCKS, PLEASE
Consumers who like whisky on the rocks were in for a larger-than-life treat when Crown Royal hosted a launch event featuring a mysterious ice sculpture that served as a nod to its frosty Canadian roots. Planted in Lower Manhattan on June 7, the installation slowly melted over 24 hours to reveal the new Crown Royal Single Malt Canadian Whisky bottle.
Consumers over the age of 21 who stopped by the pop-up installation scored a ticket to attend the Crown Royal Cocktail Tour, an experience hosted by the brand across several participating NYC hangouts, including Liberty Bistro, Monk McGinn’s and Broadstone, that offered Crown Royal cocktails and a chance to take home exclusive brand swag. (Agency: CNC Agency)
Photo credit: CNC Agency
ORE-IDA’S ‘NAPOLEON DYNAMITE’-INSPIRED PANTS ARE FRIGGIN’ SWEET
“Napoleon Dynamite” fans (read: millennials) are going to flippin’ love this brand collab. Ore-Ida, the self-proclaimed inventor of tater tots, teamed up with Searchlight Pictures to celebrate the cult-classic film’s 20th anniversary with the invention of the Ore-Ida Tot-Protecting Pants.
For the unacquainted, Napoleon is a tater tot superfan who sneaks the snack into class, only to have the school bully yell “Give me some of your tots!” before kicking his pocket and squashing the taters. The new Tot-Protecting pants pay homage to the sweatpants Napoleon wears in the film, and were inspired by his Uncle Rico’s sale of Nupont Fiber. The pants and their durable, “food-safe” pockets, went on sale June 17 and will be available on a microsite while supplies last.
To launch the product, Ore-Ida and Searchlight tapped Napoleon Dynamite himself, actor Jon Heder, to reprise his character in a short film inspired by the original movie and directed by Aaron Ruell, who plays Kip Dynamite in the film. Spoofing several popular lines from the film, Napoleon praises Ore-Ida for coming to his rescue. Tina, come get some dinner!
In other “unnecessary inventions” news, take a peek at this ranch dressing and lip balm combo, hot wing-flavored seltzer, “Barbiecue” sauce, collaborative Sneak-ers and “condiment couture.”
