Like superhero team-ups, brands sometimes join together for special marketing missions. But for every branding Avengers, there are several Secret Defenders collaborations that just don’t make a lot of sense and seem to exist only to generate any kind of buzz online, good or bad (mostly the latter).
Brand collabs have the potential of becoming greater than the sum of their parts, and we like to highlight those, like the Adidas X AriZona partnership that had to be shut down by the cops. But Erewhon teaming up with Chevy to promote a car with blue juice? That’s a hard no from me, fam. Or how about an Oreo-flavored Coca-Cola? That’s just wrong.
Those of us who write about brands and their collabs aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed bad team-ups. The writers at Saturday Night Live have, too, as evidenced by a recent spoof ad for a fictional collaboration between snack brand Cheetos Flamin’ Hot and hemorrhoid cream Preparation H.
