Pot-themed ‘Green Wednesday’ and ‘Small Brewery Sunday’ are the newest fake holidays

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Business interests for years have pushed manufactured holidays with a commercialist bent, whether it's “Small Business Saturday,” created by American Express in 2010 as the nation climbed out of a recession and now celebrated every Saturday after Thanksgiving, or “Cyber Monday,” which the National Retail Federation concocted in 2005 to spur post-Black Friday online shopping once everyone got back to work. 

Now comes “Small Brewery Sunday,” which craft beer industry group Brewers Association is pushing for the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The group is encouraging drinkers to buy brands that day that sport the “independent craft brewer seal,” a label it invented in 2017 to signify that a brand “independently owned”—i.e., not controlled by MillerCoors, Anheuser Busch InBev or another large brewer. (Soon, craft icon New Belgium won’t qualify after it comes under the wing of Japanese brewing giant Kirin.)

If beer isn’t your thing, there is always “Green Wednesday,” the day before Thanksgiving that the cannabis industry has branded as the day to stock up on pot before the four-day weekend—because don’t we all need a little help dealing with the in-laws? Springbig, which provides digital marketing software to cannabis retailers, says that cannabis sales in California, Colorado, Nevada and Washington jumped 63 percent on Green Wednesday last year compared with the average of the previous four Wednesdays.

Of course all these fake holidays take their cues from Black Friday, the unofficial shopping holiday. But as we discuss on the latest edition of the Marketer’s Brief podcast, the actual day might be losing its relevance as “Black Friday” evolves into code for any sale taking place around Thanksgiving. 

This elf wasn’t meant for the shelf
Fresh on the heels of including Tina Fey in its Mayhem campaign, Allstate is back with another spot about the troublesome mischief-maker played by Dean Winters. But this time the spot was produced entirely in-house by Allstate’s growing internal creative agency. Earlier this year, the insurer recruited David Hernandez from Ogilvy as its first chief creative officer to lead the team. The new work is indistinguishable from other spots in the Mayhem campaign, which was originally conceived by Leo Burnett, but more recent executions, including the Tina Fey work, have been done with 72andSunny. In the newest spot, Mayhem sits on a shelf and causes trouble for the homeowner, as Allstate promotes its electronics protection plan partnership with Walmart.

Conscious un-cup-ling 
Plenty of Dunkin’ fans ask for a foam cup to keep iced drinks in plastic cups cold while sparing their hands or appreciate the warmth foam cups provide for hot coffee. It’s not the most environmentally-friendly material, though. Now Dunkin’ is preparing its most loyal fans, those in its home state of Massachusetts and nearby Rhode Island, for the switch. A regional campaign from Boston agency CTP includes billboards that read “Conscious un-cup-ling,” telling drinkers to drop the double cup. Text in a video reads “Some relationships just aren’t sustainable. Like ours with foam cups.” Dunkin’ rolled out the campaign in mid-November as it plans to replace foam cups in New England with the double-walled paper ones by Dec. 1. When that switch is made, Dunkin’ says it will be 70 percent toward its goal of being foam-cup free by mid-2020.

Sam’s Club enlists Usain Bolt as ‘fastest shopper’
Sam’s Club doesn’t do much media advertising, but it’s moving there swiftly in a new campaign from Mono, Minneapolis, which has enlisted Usain Bolt and fellow track Olympian Allyson Felix to use its “Scan & Go” checkout app to become the “Fastest Shopper of All Time.” The campaign will play out across TV, connected TV, social and digital media and include a Nov. 26 integration on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” The Kimmel segment will show sidekick Guillermo as the trainer who helps Bolt achieve his “fastest shopper” status. The campaign marks a higher-profile presence for Sam’s under former Walmart U.S. Chief Marketing Officer Tony Rogers, who became chief member officer of Walmart’s sibling club store chain last year. 

Blanket yourself in bacon 
Of all the brands that we expect to weigh in on cuffing season, Oscar Mayer isn’t top of mind. But here it is, offering bacon-patterned 15-pound weighted blankets to couples or anyone who isn’t cuffed and dreams of keeping warm with bacon. The “Oscar Mayer BAEcon blanket” doesn’t smell like bacon or make any sizzling sounds. It is available through Friday to people who go on Twitter and post with the hashtags #CuffOscar and #Sweepstakes.

Would you buy this? 
Pretzel Pop-Tarts are a sweet-meets-salty snack (or breakfast, no judgment here) in chocolate and cinnamon sugar varieties. The product, with a suggested price of $3.49 per box, hits stores in January, just before the Kellogg brand’s first Super Bowl commercial.

Number of the week
78: percentage of retailers planning to increase their communication to shoppers because of the shortened holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, according to Adobe Analytics

Tweet of the week

Comings and goings
MAC Cosmetics tapped Ukonwa Ojo as senior VP, global marketing, effective Dec. 2. Before MAC, Ojo worked as chief marketing officer of consumer beauty at Coty where she worked on brands like CoverGirl.

Homebuilder KB Home named Amit Desai as senior VP-chief marketing officer. He was previously at Warner Bros.-owned DC where we was executive VP for business and marketing strategy over direct-to-consumer and global franchise management.

Subway named John Chidsey as CEO, effective Nov. 18, and said interim CEO Trevor Haynes continues with the sandwich chain as president of the North America division. Chidsey was Burger King’s chairman and CEO before it was sold to 3G in 2010, and served as co-chairman of the chain until April 2011.

David Kroll is now CEO of EggLife Foods, which uses eggs in place of flour to make grain-free, dairy-free wraps. Kroll was recently CEO of coconut water brand Coco5 and was previously CMO at MillerCoors. 

Next Insurance has appointed Melanie Chase its CMO. Before joining the Palo Alto, California-based digital insurer, Chase was VP of marketing at Fitbit.

Contributing: E.J. Schultz, Jessica Wohl, Adrianne Pasquarelli, Jack Neff