April Fools’ Day always brings a good opportunity for some fun one-off merchandise. Brands might pretend they’re offering a new and, frankly, crazy new product, or maybe they’re changing their branding all together.
Dunkin’, formerly known as Dunkin’ Donuts, celebrated the holiday yesterday by “rebranding” as just “Donuts’,” complete with a whole line of merchandise.
It’s fitting for the Massachusetts company, which has been steadily churning out merchandise, most recently branded track suits to tie in with its star-studded Super Bowl ad.
The “Donuts'” merchandise includes a line of crewneck sweatshirts with the rebranded company’s new name (at least for this one day), making it a funny one-off and inside joke for those who know. And, as America (or at least the Northeast) famously runs on Dunkin’, there are plenty of people in New England who would get a good laugh out of seeing the sweatshirt in the wild.
hurry and get ur DONUTS’ merch before my boss finds out and makes me change it back https://t.co/Qc4NZQtMFB pic.twitter.com/ua6lX41DHg
— Dunkin' (@dunkindonuts) April 1, 2024
The look uses the brands white, pink, and orange brand motif; as well as coffee and donut-inspired beiges and browns. The actual imprint is an embossed imprint on the front, creating a cool 3-D look while still keeping things classy and minimal.
All four of the designs are sold out on the website, which has also been rebranded temporarily.
Dunkin’ announced it with a very millennial/Gen Z Brand Twitter post, saying “yeah idk might mess around and make perch” with a Notes App “announcement” about the name change and that the company was “just going thru it rn.”
The call-to-action is a tweet that says, “hurry and get ur DONUTS’ merchandise before my boss finds out and makes me change it back,” creating a little cinematic universe where the social media manager suddenly has enough pull to rebrand the company and unilaterally make new merchandise. This probably means that the sweatshirt is a one-and-done, but who knows? Maybe this unhinged social media intern will keep the merchandise line going.
We do know that brands love creating little universes for themselves and milking jokes for all they can get.
