Branding Your Be@rbricks and Burgers
I guess in America, we rarely need extra incentives to buy soda and sneakers, but in Tokyo, with vending machines everywhere, companies have to amp up their swag(ger). Reports High Snobiety:
Pepsi NEX worked with Zozotown and Medicom on a series of 6 collaborations on 50% Bearbricks and matching mobile cleaners. They worked with Bape, Tommy Hilfiger, Hysteric Glamour, Journal Standard and X-Girl. The sets will come with a 500ml bottle of Pepsi NEX and will release soon.
In a related story, they talk about an upcoming Converse/Be@rbrick pairing:
Converse teams up with Medicom Toy on a series of 100% Bearbricks and matching sneakers. They worked on the Weapon 86 Basic Hi, coming in the classic LA Lakers colors. The Weapon SF Hi comes in a 3D star pattern on white leather and the Weapon Street Pattern Mid comes in a camouflage colorway. All three sneakers come with matching 100% Bearbrick toys.
Be@rbricks, microfiber cloths and sneakers: what’s not to like? The 50% Be@rbricks are out now and the 100% toys are right around the corner next month.
While we’re on the topic of branding and toys, Sjors Trimbach points me to Brazil’s Oxpecker Designers, who have created some concept toy art for Burger King. From their site:
The barbecue grill, the grill head, is a toy art transformed into a consumer product.
A concept presented to the customer to merchandising that your burger has the distinction of being grilled in a competition among advertising agencies. The grill head would be a prize to be distributed to winners of contest phrases. The grill head only eat hamburger, does not like sausage.
Sjo was quick to defend the toy art of Dylan Sprouse, but isn’t having any of this Burger King business, which is reminiscent of the 2009 Taco Bell BellHedz debacle. Certainly, Medicom’s Be@rbricks have always been about licensed properties (in addition to art and brand collabs), but we’re now seeing an uptake in avowed art toy purveyors (ie. MINDstyle) turning to almost exclusively commercial projects. At the same time, savvy businesses look to independent design studios worldwide to create an object that positions them on the designer toy playing field. For instance, if you enjoy drinking Pepsi and wearing Tommy Hilfiger clothes, you may just find yourself at the slippery slope of a gateway to collecting Be@rbricks. Hell, I’d buy a Space Bag-branded toy if they made one. And maybe Grill Heads will one day do for Burger King what Devo did for Target. It’s an interesting time to be collecting toys.
An afterthought: this is a nice toy trilogy for Mr. Morgan Spurlock…
