’90s kids, rejoice. The “Good Burger” sequel is coming back, and there’s finally a fast food promotion that makes sense in the current world of celebrity meal deals and endorsements, and Arby’s, a place not even known for burgers, is the one doing it.
That might be the point, actually, since Arby’s has been trying to expand beyond just deli-sliced sandwiches for a little while. Attaching itself to the promotional campaign for “Good Burger 2” not only allows them to get some attention, it allows them to remind people that they make burgers, too.
The promotion itself, however, is disappointingly minimal. After years of over-the-top fast food promotions involving big-name musical acts and cult-classic cartoons, the actual product rollout for “Good Burger 2” at Arby’s feels disappointingly bland. It’s just two items: A crewneck sweatshirt and a T-shirt.
The design of the T-shirt is clever. It’s a two-sided imprint with the chest imprint made to look like an Arby’s nametag for Kel Mitchell’s beloved Ed character. The back features a black-and-white picture of the anthropomorphized burger from the first movie, and “Arbys x Good Burger” at the bottom.
The sweatshirt is busy, featuring a very ’90s-inspired design, including the same googly-eyed burger, and the Arby’s logo in full color.
That’s pretty much it.
The rollout does include a promotional event at an Arby’s location in Atlanta just before the film comes out later this month, but there’s no indication about how “all out” Arby’s went for it. Think about what McDonald’s did for something like “Loki,” where a restaurant in Brooklyn went fully retro to match the time traveling of the TV show.
In any other time, two T-shirts and a promotional event for a direct-to-streaming movie would seem totally appropriate. And yet, with all of the fast food competition going to such great lengths to market themselves and their promotional partners, this one seems to fall flat.
Arby’s even teased the event with a picture of an orange VHS tape, something kids who owned or rented Nickelodeon movies will remember vividly. But, there’s no physical tape as part of the promotion, which feels like a missed opportunity.
— Arby's (@Arbys) November 12, 2023
It’s rare that a tie-in is as on-the-nose as a movie specifically about a fast food restaurant, and it doesn’t feel like Arby’s capitalized on that enough.
The T-shirt is clever, the sweatshirt is fun, but it doesn’t seem like it quite reaches the heights of its potential.
We’ll hold out to see what Mondo Burger does for this one.
