Image credit: Bush’s Baked Beans
Someone sent a link to our team’s Slack this morning: Bush’s Baked Beans had just dropped a limited-edition summer multi-pack with three flavours: Dill Pickle, Apple Pie, and Rocket Pop. As in, the frozen popsicle. As in cherry, lime, and blue raspberry. In a can of baked beans.
They had sold out before we even clicked the link.
And look, I agree, Rocket Pop baked beans sound genuinely gross. Probably not in the running for Jamie Oliver’s next cookbook. But the idea is funny, and the internet latched onto them instantly
Somewhere between “wait, what?” and “add to cart,” the cherry-lime-and-beans product that nobody asked for became something everyone was talking about. And when you frame your product properly, even a bad one can sell out instantly.
There’s a version of this product launch that involves a TV spot, a media buy, and a carefully produced 30-second ad that explains why Rocket Pop baked beans are a fun summer treat for the whole family.
Even if the ad was perfect, chances are you clicked “Skip Ad” before you saw the punchline.
What actually happened is in a Reddit thread under a slightly blurry photo of someone’s hand (likely a brand manager at Bush’s, but they’ll never tell). The top comment is “I will not be trying these, and yet I respect the vision.” Then, that conversation gets tens of thousands of impressions.
And there’s more: influencers talking about the launch, lots of online jokes about the strange combination, even a food blogger filming his reaction when he opens the can and tries it. Maybe the first few are paid plants, but once people start, the rest happen right on (barbe)cue.
And the best part (for you, not for my family, who has to have a can with dinner tonight) is that this style of advertising is, in many cases, more persuasive than the traditional forms. We still love a great high-production value commercial, and we still love billboards, but real recognizes real. And real people recognize when a conversation is worth joining.
This is just how opinions form now. We’re not reading marketing copy and making rational decisions. We’re absorbing signals from the conversations happening around us. So, how do you make sure your message comes from people who don’t sound like they’re full of beans?
The key is to frame your message with confidence. The team at Bush’s didn’t hedge or over-explain. Framing isn’t spin. It’s the honest answer to the question: what do we want people to feel when they encounter this? Bush’s answer was delight and surprise. Everything downstream, from the food photography to the strategic copy, to the price point ($5.25 as a nod to Memorial Day on 5/25), hit the nail on the head. We’ve said this before: marketing works better when everything connects.
The part that most brands get wrong isn’t the product or even the creative—It’s the entry point. There’s a version of Bush’s campaign that tries too hard, forces the joke, overexplains why it’s fun, saturates the wrong channels, and ends up feeling like a brand desperately trying to go viral.
What worked here was that the content felt like it belonged where it landed. Reddit posts about weird food. Food bloggers doing what food bloggers do. Comedians doing what comedians do. The campaign execution placed the message in the right places and then let the audience carry it, because the audience was the right audience: people who are already primed to appreciate something that is simultaneously dumb and kind of brilliant.
Entering a conversation naturally means understanding where that conversation already lives—meaningfully bringing something worth reacting to. And with the right people who will really get it. You’re not trying to reach everyone.
The thing that makes this more than a fun stunt is that there’s a logical line running through the whole thing. The product is resonant! Even if it’s bad, it’s an idea with a strong enough concept to be felt. People have feelings about it. Those feelings drive discussion. Discussion drives curiosity. And, the most important part here is that curiosity drives purchase (or gets people talking, and the cycle starts over).
Product → discussion → purchase. When a brand goes viral for something disconnected from what they actually sell, or gets attention from an audience that was never going to buy, the numbers look great, and nothing converts.
These Rocket Pop Baked Beans work because the weirdness of the product, the humour of the conversation and the act of buying were all the same thing. You bought the beans partly just to have the experience of having bought Rocket Pop Baked Beans.
That’s not luck. That’s product thinking and marketing thinking working together.
Chances are, you aren’t in the dessert-flavoured baked beans business. And, chances are, your product is reasonable, sensible, and has a genuine audience that would not be pleased if you released a joke product for an upcoming holiday.
So when you think about these beans, ask yourself how your brand enters the conversation like Bush’s did. How do you make sure your brand is remembered, and not just seen? You don’t need to make a wacky product or orchestrate a big joke (but we can help with that). You need to know who you’re talking to, why they want to listen to you, and say something about your brand that makes them care.
The execution looks different for every brand. But the thinking, planning, and execution that goes into it is the same whether you’re selling beans or software or home renovations in Niagara.
Anyway, the beans are sold out. But if this got you thinking about how your brand is showing up in the conversation, we’d be happy to kick the can around about it.
