If you spend time working in the retail grocery industry or listening to digital strategists at shopper marketing agencies, you'll hear a lot about the penetration of mobile devices and the transformative power of mobile shopping apps. Unfortunately, with razor thin margins, most grocery retailers don’t have the investment or the motivation to build and launch a digital shopper-friendly tool. After all, food is something of a commodity. Everyone has to buy it, regardless of whether your shopping list lives in your smart phone or on a scrap of paper.

Which is why it’s encouraging to see one of the country’s more unassuming grocery chains roll out a fairly robust mobile shopping app that helps shoppers fill their baskets more efficiently and get in and out faster.

Woodman's Markets is an employee-owned 14 store supermarket chain in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Supermarket News ranked it No. 4 in the 2010, 2011 & 2012 on list "Top 50 Small Chains & Independents."

Early this year, Woodman’s built upon its century-long tradition of exceptional customer service and shopping innovation with the launch of an app they are calling “Mobile Shopper.”

With Mobile Shopper, Woodman’s shoppers can use their own smart phones to scan items in the aisles as they shop. Shoppers can use the app to create virtual shopping lists before going to the store, further increasing the speed, efficiency and ease of their shopping trips.

At checkout, shoppers go to the Woodman’s self-checkout (SCO) stations and scan a QR code on their phones to transfer their mobile shopping information to the SCO. The SCO station confirms the weight of the items scanned with the phone against the items being bagged at the SCO station.  Attendants can help customers reconcile any discrepancies the system identifies and answer any other questions they may have.  Produce, other non-barcoded items and impulse items can also be added at the self-checkout

Shoppers may then pay with their preferred method of payment and can quickly be on their way.  The store also features free WIFI throughout so shoppers don't have to use their own data plan while using the app.

Apparently, the application developer, NCR, was offering demonstrations of this mobile shopper technology at the National Retail Federation Big Show back in January at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, but unfortunately, no members of our Charlotte marketing agency were able to attend.

For more information about the Woodman’s Mobile Shopper, follow the feed on Twitter, @WoodmansApp. 

Ever wanted to try a greasy Krusty Burger or toss back a frosty pint of Duff Beer at Moe’s Tavern? Well, now you can. A life-sized version of the candy-colored cartoon town Springfield – home to the world's most famous cartoon family  – just opened in Universal Studios in Orlando this summer (despite the fact, as some aficionados have pointed out, that the Simpson family was banned from Florida after Homer accidentally killed a famous alligator named Captain Jack in the 11th season).

The popular Simpsons Ride, built in 2008, will anchor the massive Universal Studios expansion. Nearby, fans will be able to stroll down Fast Food Boulevard and visit places like Apu Nahasapeemapetilon’s Kwik-E-Mart, Krusty Burger, the Frying Dutchman, Luigi’s Pizza, Lard Lad and, of course, Moe’s Tavern, which will feature a brand of Duff Beer brewed exclusively for the park. 

At Krusty's fast food emporium, the menu includes the Krusty Burger, a 6-ounce hunk of beef topped with cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce, a special sauce and served on a special bun. At $9.99, the price is a bit steep, but were you honestly expecting theme park food to be cheap? There's also the Sideshow Bob Foot Long, a foot-long Nathan's all-beef hot dog covered in cheddar cheese sauce, chili, diced onions and coleslaw. No word on which brewery is responsible for the Duff ("that wonderful stuff").

Currently in its 25th season, the Simpsons is the longest-running scripted show in television history, and its fan base spans generations. The famously satirical cartoon is a Gracie Films Production in association with 20th Century Fox Television. 

In their new book Happy Money: the Science of Smarter Spending, behavioral economists Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton draw on years of quant/qual research to explain how we can transform cash into contentment – but only if we alter our spending habits and adhere to the following five key principles:

1. Buy Experiences – research shows that material purchases are less satisfying than vacations or concerts

2. Make it a Treat  – limiting access to our favorite things will make us keep appreciating them

3. Buy Time – focusing on time over money yields wiser purchases

4. Pay Now, Consume Later – delayed consumption leads to increased enjoyment

5. Invest in Others – spending money on other people makes us happier than spending it on ourselves

As a consumer, I found this to be a very insightful read and a helpful set of guidelines on how to indirectly pursue happiness (thank you, Aristotle) as well as how to navigate the treacherous shoals of our increasingly consumption-driven society.

As the principal of a Charlotte shopper marketing agency and brand design studio, I was intrigued by the authors' exploration of a principle known as scarcity marketing. Happy Money provides valuable information not only for pleasure-seeking consumers, but also for companies looking to increase the happiness of both employees and customers, and describes how the power of limited access has led to fanatical demand of such products as McDonald's "McRib" sandwich.

If you've never heard of the McRib, it's a ground pork patty with barbecue sauce, onions, and pickles. Although pork supplies are steady, the McRib has been continually taken off the market and reintroduced – always for a limited time –over the past three decades. 

And the consumer response? An absolute obsession. Every time the Golden Arches rolls out it in a region or city, company sales go up. In fact, you can even visit the fan-based McRib Locator website, a United States map with a comprehensive list of confirmed, possible, and questionable McRib sightings. 

If you haven't perused this presentation put together MARS London, the UK-based shopper marketing agency, then we urge you to check it out.

This deck does a great job of cutting through the jumble of ideas and revealing what will really affect shoppers(in the UK and Europe) in the coming year and how shopper marketers like yourself can make the most of the future. As a Charlotte, NC marketing agency, we believe the trends discussed below are very relevant to shoppers in the U.S. as well. Enjoy!

13 Shopper Marketing trends for 2013

How long does it take for a gigantic block of ice to melt? Well probably not fast enough for these passerbys. This cool guerrilla marketing stunt, called the "Melting Machine," found that sweetspot at the crossroads of experiential marketing and an insanely thirsty audience.

7UP teamed up with BBDO Argentina to design this non-technological vending machine campaign made of ice –and asked for interaction, not pesos.

As the ice that makes up the machine melts, passers-by are invited to grab a 7Up and to guess what time they think the last can will be freed from its icy encasement. This guess, made via Twitter, gives the company a great way to attract attention and generate social media chatter.

Our Charlotte marketing agency wishes a local soft drink manufacturer like Cheerwine would take notice and pull a simliar stunt in downtown Charlotte when the weather gets hot.

There are many reasons why a multinational company or brand would redesign its logo. Some are compulsory, such as when there’s a corporate merger or when a company expands its business activities. In such cases, a new logo is a must to reflect that change. On the other hand, a logo redesign may be voluntary, like when a company feels the need to refresh, rebrand or reposition its image; or maybe if they seek to appeal to new kinds of customers.

Whenever a well-known logo design gets remade, the design community tends to be up in arms, but is this just a case of people not liking change? In time, will the following logo redesigns be recognized as a necessary step in modernizing the brand?

At our Charlotte marketing agency, we believe a logo has an important mission –  to help a company “tell” the target market at a glance what the company wants them to know or feel. So here's a great opportunity to take stock and decide, as we take a look back at some of the biggest logo redesigns of the last year. With the benefit of hindsight, what do you think of them now? 

1. eBay

Ebay straightened out its logo in the fall of 201, after 17 years of trading under its famous 'rummage style' style jumble of letters (below). The new logo gives a more sleek, professional and - dare we say it - dull look to the company. The old logo was a much-loved hot mess of lettering that reflected its dot com boom origins.

2. Microsoft

Though they're separate companies, the eBay and Microsoft logo redesigns seemed to go hand in hand thematically. The computer software giant's fairly recent logo redesign (August 2012) had a similarly slimmed-down and straightened-out aesthetic, based on Microsoft's preferred Segoe font. The chunky bold type of the old logo (below), with its 'go-faster' slant, looked immediately dated in comparison.

3. Wendy's

Wendy's opted for a sleeker look with its new logo, to match a change in company strategy. In October 2012, America's much-loved burger franchise decided to give its 1983 logo a long-overdue makeover. As well as stripping back things to its basics – a common strategy in logo redesigns – Wendy herself was also altered to look a little older, paving the way for the company's transformation into a higher-end hamburger chain. 

4. Kraft

In October 2012, the grocery giant Kraft Foods was split in two: the North American business was spun off into Kraft Foods Group, Inc, while the worldwide snacking company changed its name to Mondelez International. Neither company kept the 2009 logo (below); instead the former chose to reflect its heritage by tweaking a version of its classic shield to create a new corporate logo.

5. VH1

The minimal new logo incorporates a plus sign to indicate a broad range of programming. The music and reality TV channel, which worked with Gretel on its new identity, says the name change signifies how VH1 has become "the ultimate mash up of music + pop culture + nostalgia". The new design certainly simplifies the logo, in a way that's almost the opposite to ITV's strategy. VH1 has opted for a more geometric, simpler, single-colour typeface in comparison with the fussy, mutli-coloured design of old (shown below).

Having lived in Manhattan for six years, I 'heart' NY. I really do, plus I shamelessly own the t-shirt. You all know which one I'm talking about. The iconic white tshirt designed by Milton Glaser and sold on every street corner in Times Square and Penn Station. In terms of classic NYC icons, this image is right up there with the Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers, and should definately be protected. But from what?

Mr Penix, co-owner of Everyman Espresso, has an I 'coffee cup' NY tattooed across his knuckles, and his fist soon became cartoonized and led to the logo for the small shop.  Last month the NY State Department of Economic Development claimed this logo violated federal trademark law and was confusingly similar to I 'heart' NY and sent an immediate cease and desist of all usage. They did, sadly in my opinion, but everything bearing the knuckles came down.

In a world where there is a Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts on nearly every corner, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find a small, individually-owned, perfect cup of coffee shop. Which is why I 'heart' Everyman Espresso. I don't have the shirt, but if they sold them, I would.

Recently Everyman Espresso was hit with a letter from a lawyer responsible for protecting the iconic trademark and an ongoing battle has begun. I understand the need for trademark laws, I appreciate them and like when they are enforced.  Yet this situation frustrates me.  

You be the judge, are these confusingly similar logos?

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From the Smithsonian to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, more museums are now making their collections available online, but the recently renovated Rijksmuseum over in sunny (not) Amsterdam has shifted the paradigm a bit by offering downloads of high-resolution images at no cost for the public to copy and transform into stationery, T-shirts, tattoos, plates, or even toilet paper.

The Dutch national museum, which reopened this April after an extensive ten year renovation, holds masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Mondrian and van Gogh and has already made images of 125,000 of its works available through Rijksstudio, an interactive section of its Web site. The staff’s goal is to add 40,000 images a year until the entire collection of one million artworks spanning eight centuries is available.

Until recently, museums had been highly protective of good-quality digital versions of their artworks, making them available only upon request to members of the press or to art historians and scholars, with restrictions on how they could be used. The reasons are manifold: protecting copyrights, maintaining control over potentially lucrative museum revenues from posters or souvenirs and preventing thieves or forgers from making convincing copies.

In recent years, though, as the Google Art Project has begun to amass a global archive of images with the cooperation of museums, and the Internet has made it impossible to stem the tide of low-quality reproductions, institutions are rethinking their strategy.

The Rijksmuseum has been able to put its works online more quickly because much of its collection predates Dutch copyright laws and its staff had an opportunity to digitize the collection when museum was closed for renovations. (It reopened last month after a 10-year makeover.) The digitization project was financed by a million-euro ($1.29 million) grant from the national BankGiro lottery, which provides money for the arts and cultural groups.

To date, Rijksstudio has logged more than 2.17 million visitors since its service went online in October, and around 200,000 people have downloaded images. As a result, the Rijksmuseum won three international “Best of the Web” awards last month in Portland, Ore., at the annual international conference known as Museums and the Web. The prizes are based on peer evaluations by museum professionals.

To inspire users, the Rijksmuseum invited the Dutch design cooperative Droog to create products based on its artworks. Its designers used part of a 17th-century flower still life by Jan Davidsz de Heem as a template for a tattoo, for example; it used a 3-D printer to create a white plastic replica of an ornate 16th-century centerpiece designed by the German silversmith Wenzel Jamnitzer and to adorn it with magnetic miniatures of items from the Rijksmuseum’s collection. 

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Whether you call it “active packaging,” “smart packaging,” “e-packaging,” or “intelligent packaging,” the aisles of your favorite retailer will never be the same.

Imagine walking through a store aisle while various packages flash, display moving images, or talk to you. Or maybe you tear a coupon off of a label, hold it up to your mobile phone, and immediately discover you've won a promotional contest. Or you refill a prescription at your local pharmacy and discover the label not only has an embedded calculator to determine exact dosage but also monitors when medication is taken and can even prompt the user when it's time to take it.

Welcome to the world of printed electronics and the future of packaging.

According to a recent white paper published by IDTechEx (who also holds the annual Printed Electronics Conference),  the global demand for electronic smart packaging devices is currently at a tipping point and will grow rapidly to $1.45 billion in 2023. The electronic packaging (e-packaging) market will remain primarily in consumer packaged goods (CPG), reaching 14.5 billion units that have electronic functionality by 2023.

From winking rum bottles (see above) to talking pizza boxes, electronics are already used in packaging, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg. The key enabling technology – printed circuit boards – has seen some recent breakthroughs enable the fabrication of inexpensive, disposable, conveniently portable circuits and functional components. Consequently, many leading CPG brands have tasked multidisciplinary teams to find new ways of integrating paper thin electronics into their high volume packaging.

The benefits for retailers, consumer brands, and Charlotte marketing agencies? E-packaging lets you connect with shoppers in unheralded ways by disrupting the path to purchase with micro-targeted interactions. So buckle up and get ready for a louder, flashier, more interactive future of retail.

Really?

That is one (highly) speculative outcome, according to local news stations and the Wall Street Journal. Apparently two more private-equity firms have surfaced as possible suitors for Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc (NYSE:HTSI).

Cerberus Capital Management LP is considering a number of grocery chains for potential bids, including Harris Teeter, according to the report, which also claims private-equity firm Bain Capital is potentially interested in the Matthews-based grocery chain. Harris Teeter has so far declined to comment, referring only to its earlier statement acknowledging it is considering a possible sale.

To date, the list of possible buyers has included rivals such as Dutch retailer Royal Ahold NV, owner of Stop & Shop stores, as well as Kroger Co. and Publix Supermarkets Inc.

Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix has said previously speculation about its interest in Harris Teeter is just a rumor. However, it has also said it is "aggressively looking to expand in the North Carolina market." Plus, a myriad of Publix outdoor has sprouted acoss the inner Charlotte landscape of late.

Given the fact that roughly half the staff of our shopper marketing agency lives in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood, we don't really care who buys what as long as the new 45,000 SF store on The Plaza opens on schedule (see rendering above) and has a decent olive bar with a clean sneeze guard.

Summer's almost here, and unless you're under 18 (and still enjoy an aimless summer vacation), don't count on much to break up the monotony of the work week through the coming hot, steamy months.

Except, of course, crisply refreshing summer cocktails.

At birdsong gregory, we're fortunate enough to employ a couple of amateur mixologists on staff, and when we celebrate Thirsty Thursdays on the rooftop of our downtown shopper marketing agency (715 N Church), the spirits and ingredients vary according to season and mood, but one constant presence on the bar are Scrappy’s Bitters (and crab/manchego/garlic stuffed cremini mushroom caps).

In addition to having award-winning packaging, Scrappy's is the first American bitters company to commercially produce handcrafted bitters. Using organic ingredients of the highest quality with no artificial flavors, chemicals, or dyes, this Seattle based company draws its inspiration from the Old World – small-batch artisanal techniques that let them control the quality of the product on a level not yet achievable by robots. 

Here's what's on the menu this week: 

The BG Gin Highball

2 ounces Nolet’s Silver gin

1 teaspoon honey simple syrup

club soda

2 dashes cardamom bitters

1 lime wedge.

Fill a highball with ice. Add gin and simple syrup. Stir gently, top with club soda. Add bitters. Garnish with a lime wedge. And enjoy!

Detailed on an official page created by Ogilvy Brazil, the Huggies TweetPee is a small, connected device that attaches to the front of a baby’s diaper and alerts a parent when the baby wets the diaper and needs a change. Using a small humidity sensor, the TweetPee constantly monitors humidity levels and fires off a tweet notification to a linked smartphone in case of an accident.

A few of the messages sent from the TweetPee include phrases like “Time to Change,” “Oops, Did a few drops,” and “Everything OK here.” 

Beyond helping parents keep their kid dry and comfortable, this baby gear can also keep track of how many diapers will be needed for the upcoming month based on past habits. 

At this time, the Huggies TweetPee is being test marketed to Brazilian customers, but The Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the owner of the Huggies brand, hasn’t announced any plans to roll out the TweetPee in North America. In addition, Ogilvy Brazil hasn’t announced the availability of the TweetPee sensor or the price on the device. (ad agency charlotte)

Got a gadget that needs fixed, a handle that's rubbing you the wrong way, or just an urge to play with the adult equivalent of Play-doh? Get yourself some Sugru ($10-$20). Sugru is derived from the Irish word for "play" (isúgradh), and this exciting new self-setting modeling clay/super glue forms a lasting bond between a variety of materials, and cures to a tough silicone overnight, making it weatherproof, flexible, and generally indestructible. 

Developed by a team of product designers and material scientists, sugru's patented technology is unique in its combination of hand-formability, self-adhesion and flexibility when cured. It feels like modelling clay, and it's that easy to use too. Once cured, its durable properties mean it's comfortable in extreme environments from the dishwasher to the ocean in Antarctica.

If I appear to be enthusiastic, I am. From repairing broken cables and to fixing a loose heel before a big new business pitch, Sugru is probably one of my favorite products we keep on hand at our Charlotte marketing agency. The product has grown by mostly word of mouth, and serves as a beautiful case study for other makers and inventors who have a product that serves a niche market. Over half their customers are in the US, so they recently set up a Michigan base to fulfill North American orders. This has also allowed them to begin supplying US-based retailers including some of the more famous DIY supply sites like Inventables, Makerbot and Sparkfun.

Does blogging help build brands? Apparently so. The latest findings from Technorati’s 2013 Digital Influence Report show that “consumers are turning to blogs when looking to make a purchase." Consumers said that blogs rank higher than Twitter for shaping their opinions and higher than Facebook for motivating purchasing decisions.

Buying decisions, especially by women consumers, aren’t only being shaped by online advertising or brand websites. As bloggers become a greater influence in the media environment, they are making a greater impact on consumer buying behavior. Studies show that half of blog readers say they find blogs useful when making a purchase decision. Frequent blog readers say that they trust relevant content and that blog posts about a particular product or service influences them when they are making buying a product, more than the content they get from social networking sites.

Whether it’s discovering or deciding on a particular product and service, consumers are exploring new blogs to seek out advice on product information. They aren’t just seeking out the views of one blogger, but rather they read more than one blog per session. Unlike the traditional journalist, bloggers are building bonds with their readers. Frequent readers return to their favorite blogs time and time again because they trust their advice. Just like you seek out the advice of your family and friends – people you trust – before you make a major purchase, blog readers are going to the written resource that they are beginning to trust – their favorite bloggers. So if you're looking to develop a blogging strategy for your brand, give our Charlotte marketing agency a buzz.
 

Everybody knows that when you’re hungry, you’re not yourself. Your productivity goes down, thinking becomes murky and you begin to make mistakes here and there. This weakened, snake craving (excuse me, SNACK craving) mental state been the basis of Snickers’ campaign over the last few months, and this smart online campaign takes advantage of that common occurrence.

AMV BBDO in London worked with Google to identify the top 500 words people regularly misspell and bid on them through Google Adwords. So when someone makes a typographical error, they would be greeted by an ad linking to Snickers’ site.

As a use of AdWords, this tactic is pretty clever. Since we type so fast, we’re all guilty of misspelling search terms every now and again. In fact, in just two days, the ad was seen by over 500,000 people, and since few would run an ad campaign based specifically around misspelled words, the cost for implementing it was rather minimal.

Top 10 Ad Agency Excuses

1. Our server has been acting up.
2. We weren’t sure if you meant COB, EOB, EOD, EOW, or ASAP.
3. Our Traffic Manager is still on her honeymoon.
4. Oh…you meant 5pm YOUR time?
5. The printer was trying to tighten up the plates and a pressman lost his hand.
6. I never got that messa…oh wait, what’s this?
7. We assumed you guys closed for Earth Day too.
8. I’m calling FedEx again right now.
9. I’m sorry, but our server is still down.
10. Funny story…turns out the bike messenger we use was also selling drugs – so the work is sitting in an evidence locker down at the police station.

If you've worked in the advertising/marketing/branding arena for as long as we have, you understand that occasionally, s(tuff) happens. And given the fast-paced environment and operational complexity of shopper marketing, it doesn't take much to throw a project off deadline or insert a wrench into even the tightest of plans. But it’s also true that clients can smell the difference between an Act of God and a bogus line of BS. 

Plus, a lot of bigger, hungrier agencies can’t keep up with their clients because they’re always out chasing the next one – or trying to replace the last one. And that’s when you start paying for excuses.

The bottom line: you need help when you need it. You need access and accountability. You need to be able to count on your agency partner having your best interest in mind at all times. And when that deadline looms in the distance, you need the ability to stare it down with confidence, secure in the knowledge that everything is covered.

So go ahead – challenge birdsong gregory to make that deadline, make those numbers, or make your day.  

Instead of making excuses, we’ll make it happen.

We were very excited to spend some time with Martin Lindstrom recently discussing a potential new engagment for a regional retailer. Martin is providing his retail and branding expertise and experience to the client, and, hopefully, birdsong gregory will have the opportunity to bring the brand to life online, at the shelf, and at every relevant touch point in between.

If you've never read any of Martin's books or heard him speak, make it a priority. His pioneering research in neuromarketing and the role that sensory stimlulation plays in a retail environment has had a strong influence on our agency's work (e.g., the world's first scented billboard)

Martin is a Danish author and a Time Magazine Influential 100 Honoree, whose books include Buyology - Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, Brandwashed - Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy, and Brand Sense - Sensory Secrets Behind the Stuff We Buy.

Major consumer brands have been using various neuromarketing techniques for years, but most have been reluctant to talk about that activity. The idea of measuring a consumer’s subconscious preferences has always felt a bit Orwellian, but companies are now coming clean in their efforts to go beyond the (often) glib responses of qualitative research to gain a better understanding of what's really going in our minds when we interact with brands and their advertising.

According to Millward Brown, a global agency specializing in brand and consumer research, this year’s commitment from Unilever and Coca-Cola represents the largest-scale adoption of facial coding technology in the industry to date.

The facial platform uses proprietary software to interpret viewers’ facial expressions to gauge how viewers feel about the ads they see. “Facial analysis adds depth to our understanding and builds on our validated metrics to delivery new insights in an easily applied and cost-effective way,” Graham Page, head of Millward’s neuroscience practice said.

Millward, which says it’s used the facial analysis on over 400 advertising research projects, expects to see great growth in the use of this technology this year.

Millward doesn’t only use the facial analysis to gauge effectiveness – results are also compared with survey responses to help marketers better craft and target campaigns.

Besides targeting ads, shopper marketing agencies are also looking to get their hands on facial recognition technology built into TVs to monitor television ratings and get a sense of how many people are watching ads at any particular time, as well as how they are emotionally responsive to them. 

While the technologies used in these projects don’t involve actual measurements of brain waves or activity, the commitment of major brands to the importance of measuring subconscious preferences is significant for the neuromarketing business as a whole – and a trend our Charlotte marketing agency is closely watching.

Brands are always on the lookout for the next trend to surf. The only problem is they tend to be late to the game.

Scope has apparently figured out that bacon is trending higher than smoke from a grease fire. In an a very thoughtful attempt at an April Fool’s joke (this new product was "launched" on April 1 of this year), the mouthwash brand released a commercial for its new product: Scope Bacon, bacon flavored mouthwash. How refreshing. Here's a link to the microsite

It’s a move that’s sure to get attention. (Our ad agency in Charlotte is writing about it, after all.) But Procter & Gable brand wins few points for originality. After all, the makers of Bacon Salt for years have cornered the market on fake novelty product. They’ve rolled out everything from bacon chapstick to bacon lube over the last couple years. There are all kinds of bacon products from others, like bacon shaving cream, bacon-scented candles, bacon flavored condoms. Now Scope wants in on the bacon action.

Scope, through its agency Publicis Kaplan Thaler, is encouraging people to spread the word about it using the hashtag #scopebacon. It’s a pretty standard example of a brand associating itself with slash poking fun at a kitschy cultural trend, but it works coming from a big brand that you wouldn’t necessarily think has a sense of humor. Mouthwash isn’t the sexiest or most entertaining or products. But just add bacon and voila.