BY ALI DONALDSON for INC.
Food and beverage brands got weird in 2023.
Several companies rolled out truly wacky products this year, most of which were limited-edition brand collaborations likely designed to generate public buzz in addition to revenue. According to Samuel West, a psychologist whose corporate clients include Ikea, Johnson & Johnson, and Mars, these fun and playfully intentional self-owns by companies started popping up within the past decade, around the time Swedish Fish-flavored Oreos hit store shelves. West, who studies corporate failure and even founded a museum on the subject, says these purposefully strange products are designed to get our attention.
That strategy certainly worked. Here are some of the crazy weird consumer products that caught Inc.‘s eye in 2023.
Breakfast-Flavored Cup Noodles
Photo: Courtesy company
Cup Noodles, one of the most recognizable instant ramen brands manufactured by the Japanese company Nissan Foods, unveiled a new flavor for its signature noodles: breakfast. The limited-edition snack, which was available at Walmart, billed itself as artificially flavored as maple syrup pancakes, sausage, and egg. If you think that’s an affront to the first meal of the day, other customers may disagree. The breakfast-flavored noodles sold out on Walmart’s website.
Spiked Dunkin’ Coffee
Photo: Courtesy company
Turning one of your brand’s caffeinated drinks into a hard beverage is a bold step, but that’s exactly what Dunkin’ did. In September, the coffee chain unveiled Dunkin’ Spiked, a line of alcoholic iced coffees and iced teas in 14 states with plans to bring the canned malt beverages to more states in 2024.
Babybel Goodness Land
Photo: Courtesy company
Cheese is always an hors d’oeuvre favorite, so why not try to make a cheese-themed party game? Harboro did just that. Earlier this fall, the toy giant teamed up with Babybel to produce a limited-edition version of its CandyLand board game inspired by the red wax wrapped cheese snacks.
Non-Alcoholic Hard Seltzer
Photo: Courtesy company
Just in time for dry January, White Claw, an early entrant to the $4.4 billion hard seltzer category, is going dry. The beverage brand, which is manufactured by the privately-held Mark Anthony Group, has launched a non-alcoholic version of its popular canned drinks that will expand nationwide in the beginning of next year. The White Claw 0%, which comes in four flavors, is a curious new take on a centuries-old invention. Yes, hard seltzer without the hard is, in fact, just seltzer.
Liquid Death’s Steve-O Voodoo Doll
Photo: Getty Images
It should come as no surprise that one of the strangest products of the year was produced by Liquid Death. The environmentally conscious canned water brand was built on a joke, and that irreverent marketing strategy has catapulted the company to a $700 million valuation. This past summer, Liquid Death, which in the past sold skateboards infused with Tony Hawk’s blood, unveiled another weird product on its website: a voodoo doll. The “supernatural stunt” includes real hair shaved from the head of Steve-O, the personality behind the reality tv and film series Jackass.
