Food & Drink

Since McDonald's started giving musical artists their own branded meals and merchandise, it seems like every fast food restaurant has gotten in on the act. A&W, however, is bucking the trend. The brand's "anti-celebrity meals" feature its own employees and special signage, T-shirts and more at store locations...

To find out what buyers are looking for, what new products are hitting the market and how distributors can cook up a successful food promo, we spoke with experts from some of the leading promotional food suppliers in the industry. Here’s what they had to say, along with some products for inspiration...

Justin Bieber is one of the biggest stars on the planet, so it's no surprise that his merch tie-in with fellow Canadian icon Tim Hortons sold out pretty much immediately. The company announced last weekend that it plans to restock the items, but that hasn't stopped fans from buying merchandise at marked-up prices on resale sites...

Did you know that between 4% and 14% of the population has a genetic condition that makes cilantro taste like soap? Chipotle has been poking fun at that fact for awhile now on social media, but the brand decided to turn the meme into reality by launching a branded cilantro soap. It sold out very quickly...

Arby's is giving college football running backs $500 and a box of branded merch for saying they're eating at Arby's. It's part of the cleverly-named "Arby's RBs" sponsorship program. The first 200 D-1 running backs to post “Tonight, I’m getting Arby’s” on Instagram or Twitter will receive the cash and merch box...

Bud Light and Homesick released a candle that smells like the full tailgating experience, with scents ranging from jerseys, charcoal and bleachers to the "ol' pigskin" and dried face paint. It comes in specially designed co-branded packaging depicting some of the scents advertised on the candle, as well as both the Bud Light and Homesick logos...

Have you ever been drinking a cosmopolitan and thought to yourself, "This is pretty good, but it'd be a lot better if it tasted more like Arby's spicy curly fries"? The answer is definitely "no," but regardless, that's now a thing you can have thanks to Arby's french fry vodka. And while it might sound gross, the whole thing is actually kind of brilliant...

If you’re a company like Smoothie King, whose brand is all about a healthy and active lifestyle, your promotional merchandise has to go with that brand identity. But Smoothie King is still a chain that needs to keep up with the fast pace of branded merchandise rollouts and e-commerce sites. The company did a good job of landing somewhere in the middle...

Tim Horton's just released a limited-edition menu item in conjunction with fellow Canadian Justin Bieber, and released a line of branded merchandise to go along with it.

Little Caesars just unveiled its "Hot N' Ready Shop" today—an e-commerce site dedicated to all things pizza. After just a few hours, nearly every item from apparel to gaming chairs and skateboards sold out.