Marketing

Brands light up Twitter for 4/20

April 20, 2015 | By Shareen Pathak

Brands love a good holiday, but some special occasions are still more, well, mainstream than others. For companies to acknowledge 4/20 — alternately known as “National Munchies Day” and “National Pot Enthusiast Day” — while remaining on brand requires a delicate balancing act. It works for Ben & Jerry’s. Less so for, say, Nike. Here, then, are a couple examples of brands ablaze today:

Ben & Jerry’s
The Vermont-based ice-cream company has a history of making stoner-friendly jokes. When Colorado legalized recreational marijuana last year, the company sent out this sly tweet.

This year, the company went all out, introducing a new product, the “Brr-ito,” an ice-cream burrito that is designed to cure just about anyone’s munchies. You can even make a “half-baked” version. The brand released this spot, a spoof of Apple’s “1984” ad, to announce the product. Denny’s Considering how clever the Denny’s account can be on a daily basis, this is a pretty sub-par attempt. Punny? Yes. Funny? Not unless you’re smoking something. 

Applebee’s
The restaurant chain’s  Twitter account is apparently spending the day listening to its own Pandora station, featuring both established and budding artists.

Refinery29
Props to the publisher for a fun, non-pushy tweet that references one of Anna Faris’ best movies ever. But bonus points for the follow-up tweet that denied emphatically any reference to today’s date. 

Willie Nelson
Speaking on music, no brand is quite as synonymous with weed as Willie Nelson’s. To celebrate 4/20, Nelson released a new single: a duet with Merle Haggard called “It’s All Going to Pot.” He also created a weed-themed Spotify playlist including the new song, Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” Cab Calloway’s “Reefer Man” and Peter Tosh’s “Legalize It.”

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