Promotional Products Highlight April Fool’s ‘Rebrand’ From Arby’s and Warby Parker

Tom Higgins

For April Fools’ Day, Arby’s has teamed up with eyewear maker Warby Parker for a temporary rebrand including packaging and logo redesigns and a boatload of cool promotional merchandise.

The two companies released a cryptic, creepy joint statement to announce their venture. “Arby’s has an eye for meat. Warby Parker has meat for eyes,” they announced (regurgitated?). “The result? A new partnership sandwiched somewhere between vision and at least eight different kinds of meat.”

Alrighty then. This totally unforeseeable partnership has led to the creation of WArby’s, a name that actually kinda rolls of the tongue but is sort of transparently the only reason this partnership exists.

Anyway, some of the merch is actually pretty cool, and the collection has a lot to offer to fans of the growing fast food fashion trend. The collection features a variety of items, including T-shirts, hats, sandwich-inspired lens cleaning cloths, a pair of glasses and tote bags.

We don’t know about you, but those grocery bag inspired T-shirt designs look pretty sweet. There’s something here for everyone, whether you’re a purveyor of fine meats, or simply farsighted (honestly, this might make the food look better, so you could ditch the glasses for the duration of your meal). Speaking of meals, the rebrand also features the launch of an exciting new snack. Dubbed “The Onion Ring Monocle,” the crispy, fried tiara of juicy onion is a revolution in snack food innovation. Oh, and it looks like it might come alone, because who would want more than one onion ring?

https://twitter.com/barb_leung/status/979388757093879812

If you agreed with that last sentence, then we simply cannot be friends. All joking aside, this collaboration brings us a fair amount of joy. Why, you may ask? Well, because writing about fast food marketing antics is a fun and stress-free task, one that must not be taken seriously, and so offers the opportunity for our own antics. Who says writers can’t celebrate April Fools’?

As part of the campaign, Warby Parker will make a donation to VisionSpring, a charity that works to provide affordable eyeglasses to those in need. Arby’s will donate to No Kid Hungry, a national charity dedicated to the ending of child hunger.

Charity, swag and fun press releases—what more could we ask for? After all, this isn’t Arby’s’ first go at a goofy campaign, and their experience shows.

Arby’s chief marketing officer Jim Taylor perhaps put it best by drawing attention to the revolutionary aspect of this joint venture. “This is an exciting next chapter in the Arby’s story,” he humbly spoke. “We really changed the game simply by adding a ‘W.’”

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