People are testing out the spicy new donut at Dunkin’, meat lovers are already excited for Hormel Foods’ bacon-scented face mask, Justin Bieber dropped Crocs and a new song this week and they’re both crazy popular, and Lizzo encouraged young fans to “VOTE” with her dress at the Billboard Music Awards—plus more stories and youth news you shouldn’t miss this week…
Everyone Is Testing Dunkin’s Halloween-Themed Ghost Pepper Donut
This week, Dunkin’ debuted a new spicy treat in honor of Halloween: A Spicy Ghost Pepper Donut glazed with strawberry-flavored icing topped with a blend of cayenne, and well, actual ghost pepper. And social media is “already ablaze” with users sharing their takes on the donut. The hashtag #dunkinspicyside has one million views on TikTok, and features users sharing their reactions to trying it. With Halloween looking a little different this year (and no, young people aren’t planning on cancelling it), brands have been getting creative in how to safely reach them year in the midst of a pandemic. Donut chain Krispy Kreme, for instance, introduced “reverse trick-or-treating” for customers who buy a dozen donuts and can buy another dozen for just $1, with the extra dozen are to drop off to a friend or neighbor (including their Halloween-themed donuts). The hashtag #spookytreats is also trending on TikTok this week with 48.8 million views proving that young consumers have an appetite and sweet tooth for unique Halloween-themed treats this season.
Hormel Foods Is Giving Away Bacon-Scented Face Masks
With face coverings the new normal, brands are getting creative with mask marketing. Earlier this year, Burger King allowed customers to print orders on their masks so they could order without having to speak. Now branded masks are getting a little weirder. On Wednesday, Hormel Foods, known for their Black Label Bacon, announced they are launching “Breathable Bacon” face masks, which yes, actually smell like bacon. The brand announced that it will be giving away the bacon-scented face masks for free until the end of the month through breathablebacon.com. The announcement on Instagram and Twitter have received thousands of views. While it’s too soon to tell, it seems like the consensus so far is that bacon and meat-lovers on social platforms like Twitter are excited for the new scented face covering. But weird scented marketing is something that young consumers have proven to love: During the holidays last year, Taco Bell unveiled Crunchwrap Supreme-scented wrapping paper, while KFC brought back their popular fried chicken-scented fire logs.
Justin Bieber Is Going Viral For His Crocs & New Song on Snapchat
Gen Z-favorite singer Justin Bieber certainly had a good week. First, he collaborated with Crocs for a “Crocs X Justin Bieber with drew” (named after Bieber’s unisex clothing line Drew House) for a pair of classic yellow clogs with eight accompanying jibbitz charms, which sold out within just days of dropping. Though they retail for $49.99, they’re already reselling on sneaker resale sites like StockX for $75 to $95 and Grailed for $100. Prior to the official launch, Bieber heavily promoted the collaboration on social media racking up 1.4 million likes on a cryptic Instagram post at the beginning of the month that showed yellow crocs floating in a pool. He garnered another several million views in a video showing a closeup of the clogs, and on the day of the launch, he accrued 2.3 million views on a post sharing himself wearing the actual shoes. Crocs have proven to be the must-have fashionable footwear in the “ugly-is-cool era” and this isn’t the first time they’ve collaborated with a celebrity: They previously worked with Post Malone and KISS on limited edition collections. Following the success of Dunkin’s drink with Charli D’Amelio and McDonald’s combo meal with Travis Scott, Bieber’s virality just further proves that celebrity branded products are very in right now. Meanwhile, Bieber dropped a new song and music video “Lonely,” which he collaborated on with record producer Benny Blanco—and it already has more than three million views on YouTube and is one of the top trending videos on the platform. Prior to the release of the full song, Bieber and Blanco featured a preview of the song on Snapchat’s new Sounds feature, which is competing with TikTok. While it’s too soon to tell whether Snapchat had a hand in the viral success of the new track, other competing apps like TikTok has obviously helped other artists’ songs go viral in the past, while Instagram Reels helped put Miley Cyrus’ new song “on the map” after she featured a teaser of it in August.
Lizzo Used Her Voice (And Dress) To Encourage Young Fans to Vote
YPulse’s influencers & celebrities report found that 64% of 13-39-year-olds believe that celebrities have a responsibility to share their views and causes with their followers—and with the election less than a month away, Lizzo really took that to heart at the Billboard Music Awards on Wednesday night. At the award ceremony, the singer was seen wearing a black dress, designed by Christian Siriano, with the word “VOTE” plastered all over it. And after she won the award for “Top Song Sales Artist,” she used her acceptance speech to speak out about voter suppression. She continued the enthusiasm on her social channels where she shared a video of herself modeling the dress (which received more than 736K views) on Instagram with the caption: “IM SO EXCITED THAT WE ALL GETTING READY TO VOTE! IMA TREAT THIS SH*T LIKE HALLOWEEN AND GET ALL DRESSED UP TO CELEBRATE OUR RIGHT WE FOUGHT SO D*MN HARD FOR!” Lizzo isn’t the first celebrity to wear politically-themed attire: In August, we told you how politically fuelled merch was all the rage with young consumers—including merch to support the USPS and a “VOTE” necklace that Michelle Obama donned during her speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Links We’re Passing:
Harry Potter fans are using the #DracoTok hashtag to grab the attention of Tom Felton (the actor who portrayed Malfoy in the movies) in hopes of getting a duet video with him—and it already has 2.9 billion views.
A new trend on TikTok is calling for users to “kill brands” and “get paid.”
The “How it started / How it ended” meme is continuing to take over the internet.
Ariana Grande announced that she is dropping a new album later this month.
