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- DoorDash shoots a brick
to start the NBA season,

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and Heinz gets bloody
clever for Halloween.

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I'm Jeff Beer, and this
is Fast Company's Brand

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The miss this week goes to DoorDash.

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The NBA is back.

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Though with all the Kyrie
Irving vaccine drama,

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trade season, and general
24 hour sports news cycle,

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does it ever really leave?

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Anyway, the actual basketball
season tipped off this week,

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which gives fans a reason to celebrate,

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and brands a reason to create
new NBA-specific advertising.

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Nike had a great one with players

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showing the love for each other,

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and Bleacher Report even put a fun

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"Succession" style spin on it.

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DoorDash is another such brand.

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The food delivery platform launched

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a new spot called GOOATer.

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No, I didn't say goiter,

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and definitely do not Google that.

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It's GOOATer,

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for greatest order of all time,

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a play on the never-ending
greatest of all time

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GOAT debates among basketball fans.

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As pointless as even the
basketball GOAT debate is,

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MJ, LeBron, Wilt,

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at least it's based in reality.

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Nobody in the history
of human food delivery

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has ever debated best food order,

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because the greatness of a food order,

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unlike say a basketball player,

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is subject to more stringent conditions

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in context of time, place, and cuisine.

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As DoorDash itself illustrated

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in its first ad as an
MBA partner last year,

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the miss here with the new ad is

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it's glaring lack of specificity.

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It jumps from fan to fan

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with meaningless
declarations of dominance,

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from a construction workers jerk,

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to the chicken bucket lady,

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to the Celtics dude and
his Lakers girlfriend,

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to the ramen kid,

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none of it really makes any sense.

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The opportunity missed here for DoorDash

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is to bring some of the banter

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and trash talk of sports to food for real.

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Fans from different cities,

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deliberating whose pizza, burgers,

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or tikka masala is better

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or friends of the same team

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arguing over the best food order

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for watching their team in their city.

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Without that specificity,

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it feels like DoorDash is just trying

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to fill up an emotion on empty calories.

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This week's hit goes to Heinz.

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It's Halloween season,

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and the ketchup brand's
found an incredibly fun

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and clever way to get involved.

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Instead of some cheeseball ad cliche,

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it changed the name of its product

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to tomato blood,

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with the tagline,

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Which is music to the ears of anyone

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who's ever had that last minute panic

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before a Halloween party.

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The brand has also
launched a retail pop-up

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Halloween store in LA,

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as well as a digital e-com site

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where you can buy a branded costume kit

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that has a bottle of the
Halloween themed ketchup,

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a makeup palette, sponge,
dropper, makeup brush set,

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rhinestone sheet, tattoo
sheet, vampire teeth,

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and spooky eyelashes for 20 bucks.

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Of course, all you really
need is like a white t-shirt

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and a bottle of ketchup.

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(bottle squirting)

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This is just the latest way the brand

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has used its product as the
focal point for some goofy fun.

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Earlier this year,

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Heinz anonymously asked people across

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five different continents
to simply draw ketchup,

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and the results look
remarkably like its own label.

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As the world was locked
down in pandemic panic,

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and the popularity of
puzzles was skyrocketing,

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Heinz created a puzzle of its own

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and actually sold it in stores
like Walmart and online.

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The joke is every single one

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of the 570 pieces was
identical ketchup red.

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Amazing.

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And all sales proceeds
went to Feeding America.

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And this new Halloween stunt

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isn't even the first
time the brand's had fun

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with its own label.

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Back in 2019, it tilted the label to match

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the best angle to get the
ketchup out of the bottle.

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What this all points to

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is an acute sense of brand self-awareness.

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Alfred Hitchcock may have
used Hershey's chocolate sauce

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for that "Psycho" shower scene,

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but we don't live in black and white.

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So Heinz easily has the
best branded blood claim,

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and here, was smart enough to stake it.

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That's it for this week.

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Thanks for watching.