If you think the marketers of the world have run out of places to creatively boost brands in search of a bigger bottom line, think again. The Oklahoma City-based fast-food chain Sonic has announced that it will soon begin offering college-branded burgers to customers in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana.
Specifically, Sonic restaurants in those states will use dyes and food coloring to stamp buns with the logos of cherished local teams, combining that gimmick with custom sandwiches tailored to tastes in each region. If you’re in Oklahoma, for instance, you’ll be able to get a Sooner Brisket Cheeseburger with OU’s logo branded on top. Head southeast, and Sonic customers in bayou country can queue up for a University of Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun Bulldog Burger.
Sonic marketing chief James O’Reilly sees the move as a creative opportunity to generate interest among these universities’ fans: “We’re a gathering spot in many smaller communities,” he told USA Today. “This will generate a lot of buzz.”
I suspect that he’s right. And, honestly, if I could get an Air Force Falcon Cheeseburger here in Colorado Springs, I might just try it out, simply for the novelty of it.
That said, I also can’t help but wonder where our culture’s efforts to market, brand and advertise virtually everything, it seems, will end. These days, we find pitches for products and reminders about brands almost everywhere—from school buses to stadium names to sponsored halftime reports on TV to, well, just about any piece of real estate these creative ad guys can appropriate.
And now that extends, in some markets, to using something we eat as a kind of advertising space. If Sonic’s unusual effort works here, it’s not a stretch of the imagination at all for me to think that McDonald’s might soon be selling hamburgers advertising Iron Man 4—something I’m sure my 6-year-old son would think is the coolest thing ever.
But as harmless and fun as this innovative example of branding may seem, I think it’s indicative of a culture that will leave no stone—or hamburger bun, if you will—unturned it is unceasing efforts to get our attention and to influence us to purchase something. And that’s a trend I’m pretty sure isn’t quite as harmless and innocuous as it might seem at first bite.
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