The Grimace Birthday Meal from McDonald’s sparked a TikTok trend.
This week, Ad Age’s expanded “Creativity Top 5” series looks at some of the latest innovations in the food and beverage space. Visit our site each Thursday for a new list of niche campaigns from the past month.
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In time for the summer, Wendy’s partnered with T-Pain to promote the return of the chain’s Strawberry Frosty. “Buy U a Frosty,” a reimagined take on T-Pain’s hit single “Buy U a Drank,” was released on Wendy’s YouTube. It was created by VMLY&R, produced by SixTwentySix and directed by Miles & AJ. Earlier this month, customers could get a free small Frosty with any purchase through its website or app.
Freeze your brain in style. 7-Eleven redesigned its Slurpee cups as part of a summer ad campaign from Dentsu it’s calling “Anything Flows.” A nod to the bold flavors and bright colors of the fizzy frozen beverage, the look is meant to be both nostalgic and edgy, while welcoming a new generation of Slurpee consumers and customers of Speedway convenience stores, which 7-Eleven acquired in 2021. Slurpee last changed its look in 2019. The new design features a stylized S that resembles the dollop on top of a Slurpee.
Heineken is celebrating its 150th birthday with a campaign focused on “gezelligheid,” the Dutch phrase meaning “the feeling of good times.” A spot from the brand’s Publicis-led advertising agency Le Pub takes viewers around the globe to showcase social moments with Heineken, especially those done unexpectedly. Set to Plastic Bertrand’s zany “Ca Plane Pour Moi,” the ad whips from a misspelled Heineken tattoo to an appearance by Formula One driver Mika Häkkinen, whose surname is among many featured mispronunciations. Determined to live up to its gezelligheid, Heineken even partnered with the University of London to develop a brand tracking metric known as the Good Times Index, which will track its annual performance.
In honor of the 10-year anniversary of its late-night menu, Jack in the Box launched a Munchie Meal inspired by Snoop Dogg. A new ad from TBWA\Chiat\Day nods to Snoop’s other brand deals, having the rapper walk off what looks a lot like a Corona film set. The rapper’s meal—which has an obvious pot reference—includes a spicy chicken sandwich, brownie, taco, curly fries and a drink, and will sell for $14. Customers also get a late-night air freshener.
Snoop Dogg previously worked with Jack in the Box in 2018 when the chain rolled out a Snoop-themed Merry Munchie Meal to celebrate the passing of Proposition 64, which allowed marijuana to be legally sold in California.
Recent news: Snoop Dogg promotes Happy Dad hard seltzer
In another nostalgic play, McDonald’s featured Grimace in a campaign that celebrated the purple blob’s birthday. The new Grimace Birthday Meal includes a choice of a Big Mac or 10-piece McNuggets with fries, along with a berry-flavored purple milkshake. Ads for the new campaign, by Wieden+Kennedy New York, were inspired by archival footage and show Grimace celebrating his birthday through the years at McDonald’s.
The purple milkshake has sparked the Grimace Shake trend on TikTok, which shows young customers taking a sip of the drink and then passing out or appearing to have been attacked by the McDonald’s mascot. While no one seems to be getting hurt, some of the videos do have a horror tinge to them, or could reference the codeine drink, lean.
McDonald’s has acknowledged the trend on TikTok and Twitter with a photo of Grimace captioned, “meee pretending i don't see the grimace shake trendd.”
