The food and beverage campaigns that stay memorable for decades share one trait: they attach the brand to a specific, repeatable idea instead of a generic claim about taste or quality. Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke," Wendy's "Where's the Beef?," Subway's $5 footlong, and Pepsi's decades of celebrity partnerships each did this differently, but each one gave the brand a single, ownable hook that competitors could not simply repeat with a bigger budget.
What Made "Share a Coke" Work?
Coca-Cola launched "Share a Coke," printing popular first names on bottle labels in place of the brand's own logo, in Australia in 2011 before expanding the campaign to the United States and more than 80 other markets by 2014. The food marketing mechanic turned a mass-produced product into something that felt personalized, giving consumers a reason to photograph and share a bottle rather than simply buy and drink it.
Why it works: a name on a label converts an anonymous purchase into a personal, shareable moment, which is what turned the campaign into an early example of a product doubling as its own social content. A generic "refreshing" claim gives a consumer nothing to photograph; a bottle with their own name on it does.
Why Did Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" Break Through in 1984?
Wendy's aired "Where's the Beef?" in January 1984, showing three elderly women scrutinizing an enormous bun with a tiny burger patty, a direct jab at competitors' larger, less meat-dense sandwiches. The line became a national catchphrase within weeks and was even referenced in that year's presidential debates, giving Wendy's free earned media far beyond its ad spend.
Why it works: the ad made a specific, checkable product comparison instead of a vague superiority claim, which gave people an actual line to repeat. A catchphrase spreads for free in a way a generic tagline never does, since it functions as a joke people want to retell rather than an ad they merely watched.
How Did Subway's $5 Footlong Redefine Its Positioning?
Subway's "$5 Footlong" campaign launched nationally in 2008, pairing a fixed, repeatable price point with the brand's existing "Eat Fresh" health positioning built years earlier around Jared Fogle's publicized 1998 weight-loss story. The price itself became the marketing message: customers could recite it as easily as a jingle, and Subway kept the number consistent long enough for it to become shorthand for value fast food.
Why it works: a fixed, simple price is easier for word-of-mouth to carry than a percentage discount or a limited-time offer, since there is nothing to explain or calculate. Pairing that price hook with an already-established health positioning meant the campaign reinforced Subway's differentiation rather than just discounting it.
Why Has Pepsi Relied on Celebrity Partnerships for Decades?
Pepsi has run celebrity-driven campaigns since the 1980s, from Michael Jackson's 1984 "Pepsi Generation" ads through later partnerships with Beyoncé and Cardi B, consistently positioning the brand as the pop-culture-forward alternative to Coca-Cola. Rather than compete directly on taste claims, Pepsi built its differentiation around cultural relevance tied to whichever artist defined the moment.
Why it works: a celebrity partnership transfers an existing audience's attachment to a specific person onto the brand, which is a faster path to relevance than building an emotional association from nothing. The risk is that the brand's identity becomes tied to a person rather than a product claim, which is why Pepsi has needed to keep refreshing the partnership roster rather than relying on one campaign indefinitely.
How Does HelloFresh Use Influencer Marketing Differently From Legacy Brands?
HelloFresh relies on smaller, niche creators on YouTube and social platforms rather than the celebrity-scale partnerships legacy food brands like Pepsi have used, pairing that reach with promo-code discounts that give viewers an immediate reason to try the service. The smaller-creator approach trades reach for relatability, betting that an audience trusts a creator's specific recommendation more than a celebrity's general endorsement.
Why it works: a subscription service needs a customer to actually try it once to see the value, and a discount code tied to a trusted creator lowers that first-try barrier more effectively than a broad brand ad would. This is the same mechanic newer food and beverage brands increasingly rely on instead of the mass-celebrity model.
Every campaign here shares the same underlying discipline covered in 5W's guide to brand positioning in food and beverage: each one picked a single, ownable idea and repeated it consistently rather than chasing every trend at once. A memorable slogan works only when it reinforces that same underlying position. And a campaign built on humor or nostalgia, the register all four of these examples use, only stays an asset if the brand has a crisis communications plan ready for the moment a joke lands wrong or a claim gets challenged publicly.
