Beans, Greens, Potatoes, Red Lobster?
A Piffany About Capitalism Capitalizing On Memes
Hi! I know it has been a while. I've been busy with freelance work as well as developing my other newsletter, From The Comic's Comic, and if you're looking for comedy news, you really should subscribe there (or tell me to sign you up, either way!) instead or in addition to Piffany. The past month and a half have been mighty weighty, and I do have some thoughts if not outright epiphanies to share, but since it has been a while, I thought I'd start with something a bit lighter.
So TV ads are weird, am I right? The 21st Century has seen the rise of Big Pharma flooding your brain with jingles and prompts to prompt your doctor, and then we've got this influx of nostalgia for the late 1900s (or even pop culture icons and trivia answers from much more recent times). The Backstreet Boys are back once more in heavy rotation for a Downy ad from almost a year ago.
But with Thanksgiving around the corner, it's this new Red Lobster jingle that caught my attention.
"We got tails, shrimp, waiters, potatoes, sauces for bosses, cheddar bay stuffing, no bluffing. Come taaaaste it!"
Where had I heard that song and that voice before? You know it, and I eventually realized that yes indeed, Pastor Shirley Caesar is shelling for shellfish. She even shared this Red Lobster holiday commercial on her own YouTube account. No bluffing!
Caesar is a gospel singer with 11 Grammys to her credit. In case all the bad news from November 2016 clouded your memory banks, provided the source code for an epic meme "You Name It!" (#UNameItChallenge) when someone zeroed in on 17 seconds from this footage of Caesar at a church service singing "Hold My Mule," at the part where she inexplicably launches into this lyric: "Look! I got beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, lamb, rams, hogs, dogs, chicken, turkeys, rabbits, you nammmme it!"
This remix on Nov. 14, 2016, generated 16 million views and countless other remixes. As memes are wont to do.
Hiring Caesar for this payoff is a sweet potato move for Red Lobster this holiday season.
What in the ever-loving Golden Arches, however, is the idea behind making Grimace Crocs?!?
This email hit my inbox on Tuesday and I've been trying to pretend it was some AI gone ay ay ay, and yet...
Pick up a pair of McD's branded clogs or limited edition Grimace, Birdie or Hamburglar Crocs and socks—decked out with McD's x Crocs JibbitzTM charms. Hurry, before it's too late.* |
In celebration of the Crocs partnership, McDonald's will be making a donation to Ronald McDonald House Charities to help support families when they have a child who is ill or injured. |
There's a whole collection of McDonald's Crocs for sale ($70-$75 a pair), but who's buying them?
I mean, it's all been a sick joke this year. First McD's releases a purple Grimace shake to coincide with the character's 52nd birthday (wait a second, Grimace was born in 1971? I was born in 1971!), and then the kids mock the whole thing by making TikToks adding real insults to fake injuries and illnesses immediately upon drinking the Grimace shake. Of course, it's all good publicity in McD's bank account, since someone had to buy those shakes before spitting them back out. So why not sucker them again, right?
What a McCroc.