One of our favorite things about writing for Promo Marketing is the opportunity to showcase some of the stories that transcend industry know-how. You know, the ones you can show your friends outside of the promotional products industry and they’ll appreciate it as much as you do.
Often, these are the stories on the weirder side of the news spectrum. Celebrities using their blood for screen printing ink, sweatpants smoked alongside meat, things like that.
With 2021 being such a news-heavy year, it’s easy to forget some of the out-there stories from just a few months ago. But, never fear, your pals here at PM are here to jog your memory with a recap of some of the weirdest products and stories we covered this year.
1. Expedia’s Plan to Court Nervous Travelers With a Fake Jonas Brothers Hand
If you were nervous about traveling in 2021, whether because of the pandemic or just an aversion to flying (humans weren’t meant to exist in the sky!), you weren’t alone. Expedia found that some of these nervous travelers might be more at ease if they could hold one of the Jonas Brothers’ hands. So, they worked with Joe Jonas to create and distribute 250 3-D printed replicas of his right hand, each one numbered and signed by the singer.
We still don’t know why they chose Joe Jonas over literally anyone else in the world with a right hand and reassuring energy, but Expedia seems to know their audience pretty well.
2. Weezer Made a Custom Roomba
Weezer proved that it’s one of the best bands in the world, at least when it comes to merchandising. They set a high bar in 2019 with their “Black Metal Hub” e-commerce store, and frequently create items that tie in with album titles and song themes.
While Rivers Cuomo hasn’t written a song about robot vacuums yet, it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility. This Weezer Roomba was available for contest winners in April, and coincided with the release of the song “OK Human.” (A play on Radiohead’s “OK Computer.” See? Clever stuff.)
3. Tony Hawk’s Blood Was Used for Screen Printing
Tony Hawk, arguably the greatest skateboarder of all time, entrepreneur, and personal hero to multiple PM staffers, has donated plenty of blood to his craft over the years. But it wasn’t until he partnered with Liquid Death that it was actually used in an official capacity.
The Birdman donated his actual blood to be used for printing limited edition Liquid Death-branded skateboards. Considering the fact that they couldn’t take that much of a human being’s blood at a time, the release was limited to 100 skateboards. That’s quite a step up from your run-of-the-mill autograph.
4. Arby’s Smoked Sweats With Real Meat
Arby’s really banked on customers wanting to smell like meat. The fast food chain released a set of sweats that smells like it was cooked right alongside barbecue ribs, because it actually was smoked alongside barbecue ribs.
The Smoked Sweats were smoked over hickory wood by a Texas pitmaster, and brought new meaning to the term “meat sweats.” (Coincidentally, Arby’s also once had a product line called Meat Sweats.)
5. Arby’s Made French Fry Vodka
While we’re on the topic of Arby’s, we’d be remiss to not mention the french fry vodka. To celebrate the addition of crinkle fries to its french fry arsenal, Arby’s released two vodkas—one flavored like spicy curly fries, the other like the new crinkle fries.
It sounds gross. There’s no other way to put it. It does make sense, though. Vodka is made from potatoes! So are french fries! Vodka can be used in spicy things like a Bloody Mary. How many more justifications do we need to list here? Apparently, Minneapolis craft distillery Tattersall Distilling Company didn’t need that many to join the project.
Na Zdrovie!
6. KFC Made a Gaming Console That Heats Up Chicken
Right now, a lot of people are agonizing over whether they should buy the PS5 or the Xbox Series X. Both consoles are so hard to get that, for a lot of people, the answer is “neither.” With that disappointment in mind, have any of you gamers considered a third option? Maybe one that serves up delicious chicken to fuel your gaming sessions?
The KFConsole is a real, functioning gaming system that doubles as a device to heat up chicken (preferably chicken that comes from KFC). It has a 1TB solid state hard drive and is capable of 4K output at 240 FPS. That’s pretty legit by any gamer’s standards.
Sure, your PS5 makes the new “Spider-Man” game look great, but what does it do for me, your hungry friend watching you play? Nothing.
7. Miller Lite Wanted Your House to Smell Like a Bar
A lot of us weren’t able to go to our favorite neighborhood bars during the pandemic. If you missed the smell of your local dive or Sundays watching the game at your go-to sports bar, you weren’t alone. Miller Lite had a solution to try to replicate the experience from home as much as possible—candles that smelled like bars.
The three scents included “Game Day Bar” (Salted Peanut, Jalapeño, Crackled Leather), “Dive Bar” (Must, Tobacco, Pine, Yeast) or “Beer Garden” (Green Moss, Warm Pretzel, Cracked Wood, Sunburn).
Check back in tomorrow for the next 2021 wrap-up. Thanks for reading!
