Today, the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Philadelphia Eagles on the U.S.’ most hotly anticipated game of the year. But on the internet, an even fiercer event is set to take place: the battle of food brands on Twitter, hungry for attention. They’re duking it out to win our hearts and stomachs.
The event, lovingly dubbed the #brandbowl by the marketing industry, has become an annual tradition in and of itself. As you read this, the social media managers of the world are stretching their typing fingers and scheduling their tweets to blast out in the lead-up to the big game. People spend a lot of money at the grocery store on Super Bowl weekend, and the brands are going to do everything they can to score a piece of the financial pie.
If history is any indication, the results will be cringy, weird, and in one rare case, delightful.
Wow
Planters pPeanuts did a Super Bowl commercial where their iconic mascot died in a tragic accident. I debated giving you that background though, because this would be WAY better if you don’t know the context.
“Fun”
Man that does sound fun. I wish I could imagine that right now, but I’m too busy thinking about how Subway isn’t legally allowed to call its bread “bread,” or the controversy surrounding what’s actually in its tuna salad.
Nothing Gets Me Hungry Like Art
Here’s one I really do like. It’s just a video of Andy Warhol eating a Whopper. That’s what I call #art, baby.
the whopper’s out of the bag. keep eating like Andy. #EatLikeAndy pic.twitter.com/Bg3ZuK1V3J
— Burger King (@BurgerKing) February 4, 2019
Burger King followed this up with some pretty good life advice. Whether this kind of thing sells burgers, though, is something I can’t answer. Are Andy Warhol fans Burger King’s target market?
google ‘pop art’
— Burger King (@BurgerKing) February 4, 2019
Dating Is Hard 🙁
While Coldplay was doing their thing at the 2016 half-time show, Pabst’s social media manager was apparently rushing the ball into the friendzone. Hope you do better this year, Pabst.
What Even Are Steak-umms, Anyway
The Steak-umm Twitter account is famously unhinged, but here the brand went for a little radical honestly. With eight thousand likes, it seemed like it worked. There’s a lot of great “brands hanging out together” action in the comments to check out here, too. The only question is will thinking about this tweet finally get me to Google what a steak-umm is? Do I want to know?
Here’s A Thought
Here’s an response: stop. What is even going on here?
This Is, Uh, Pretty Depressing
Sunny Delight tweeted this out during the 2019 Super Bowl. You OK SunnyD?
What Can You Even Say About This
Someday we’re going to look back at this bizarre period where brands tried to have fun on Twitter and wonder what the hell was going on. Is this even supposed to be a joke? The funniest thing about it is how poorly the tweet did — just seven retweets and 34 likes. Imagine a bunch of marketing guys sitting around a room and thinking “Ketchdown” was going to be a hit.
Actually Iconic
In 2013, there was a power outage at Super Bowl XLVII. The TV broadcast went dark, and the game stopped for more than half an hour. Oreo seized a golden opportunity, tweeting this out and gaining national attention in the process. It earned them a second spot on this list and a permanent entry in the halls of advertising history. It’s one of those cases where you do, in fact, gotta hand it to ‘em.
I Only Read It For the Replies
This is really not that funny, but the top response to this tweet is solid gold. This man was not here for the brand awareness, I hope he finally got his pizza.
I need help with an order – it’s marked as delivered but the store isn’t even picking up their phone
— BC (@basterdchile) February 13, 2022