8 brands capitalizing on the $6.2 million duct-taped banana

Following the $6.2 million sale of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s concept art last week, brands felt inspired to pursue the arts with their products. Their muse was “Comedian,” a banana duct-taped to a wall that Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency platform Tron, purchased at a Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday. The auction attracted attention from the mainstream press and art world alike. Attendees packed the room as the bidding started at $800,000 and shot up to seven figures within minutes. Sun stated the piece represents the cultural overlap between crypto, art and memes and announced his plans to eat the banana within a few days of his purchase. When Cattelan first duct-taped a banana to a wall and called it “Comedian” back in 2019, the work sold for a much more modest $120,000. At the time, RXBar posted a picture of its banana chocolate walnut bar taped up with a caption reading “For the cost of the #ArtBasel banana, you could buy 48,192 RXBars (and get 578,304 grams of protein too). We’ll throw in the duct tape for free.” This time around, either moved by the spirit of artistic invention or the potential of a low-effort awareness boost, these eight brands also looked to capitalize on the viral sale. Also read: Phone brand Nothing teases Jaguar’s ‘Copy Nothing’ rebrand Liquid Death No stranger to auctioning items to crypto companies or selling products worth millions of dollars, it’s not a huge surprise that Liquid Death put its melon-flavored sparkling water on sale for $5.2 million. The “Can of Art” available on its website comes with a certificate of authenticity, a roll of duct tape and a 10-year supply of Mango Chainsaw sparkling water. “This is a tremendous value given that a 19.2-oz can of our flavored sparkling water is valued at more than twice a banana in your local convenience store,” reads a LinkedIn post promoting the item. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Liquid Death (@liquiddeath) Cheetos Cheetos kept the spirit of the auction alive by selling a single Cheetos Puff and some tape on eBay. The auction, set to end on Thursday at 8:17 a.m. ET, sat at $1,026 with 49 bids as of Monday morning. The winning bidder will also receive a supply of Cheetos in the amount equivalent to their bid. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cheetos (@cheetos) Walmart Walmart is not selling its rotisserie chicken for millions of dollars. It did, however, post an image on X of poultry wrapped in tape dubbed “The Essence of a Rotisserie Chicken Captured Forever by the Stickiness of Duct Tape.” Walmart called the “warm, slightly crispy & perfectly seasoned” piece priceless—a price point Sotheby’s affirmed in an Instagram post where the retail giant asked followers how much they would spend on its chicken. Title: The Essence of a Rotisserie Chicken Captured Forever by the Stickiness of Duct Tape. Artist: Us. Dimensions: Poultry-sized. Condition: Warm, slightly crispy & perfectly seasoned. Price: Priceless. pic.twitter.com/WqFWkz5H4l— Walmart (@Walmart) November 23, 2024 Charity: Water Global nonprofit Charity: Water arguably created the closest thing to provocative art by taping a yellow canister of diesel fuel to a wall. While not selling anything, the organization—which is focused on bringing clean water worldwide—posted its artwork with the caption “$1 million brings clean water to 25,000 people.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by charity: water (@charitywater) Savannah Bananas Exhibition baseball team Savannah Bananas (think the Harlem Globetrotters for baseball) quickly designed T-shirts with their logo covered in tape after seeing “Comedian” sell. It sold out of the 62 collector's items, each valued at $62.40, in six minutes. “This wasn't in our merchandise plans or our social media plans,” Jesse Cole, the yellow tuxedo-wearing owner of Savannah Bananas, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “But our team was nimble enough to quickly make it happen and test this fun experiment.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Savannah Bananas (@thesavbananas) E.l.f. Cosmetics Monkeys like bananas and monkeys have a strong grip. Those were the only insights e.l.f. needed to tape its Power Grip Primer to a plain white wall and post a picture online. The “e.l.f.ing bananas” product sells for $10, sans duct tape. View this post on Instagram A post shared by e.l.f. Cosmetics and Skincare (@elfcosmetics) Mailchimp B2B marketing can be art too—at least according to Intuit’s Mailchimp. The email marketing platform taped up its mascot, Freddie, and compared its campaign to a masterpiece worth “$6 million bucks.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Intuit Mailchimp (@mailchimp) View this post on Instagram A post shared by RXBAR (@rxbar)

8 brands capitalizing on the $6.2 million duct-taped banana

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