Author: UAA Staff

TORONTO, ONTARIO – JUNE 23: Vanilla Ice attends the Joyburst Summer Launch Party at Rebel Nightclub on June 23, 2022 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Ryan Emberley/Getty Images for Joyburst). Getty Images for Joyburst

George Clooney has Casamigos. Diddy has Ciroc. Angelina Jolie as a rosé brand and now, Vanilla Ice has solidified his beverage legacy: a spiked and no-proof energy drinks.

The flavor? Well, I don’t need to tell you: it’s vanilla ice.

The “Ice, Ice, Baby” rapper, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, launched the product in partnership with Canadian energy drink brand Joyburst. In addition to Vanilla Ice’s namesake flavor, the naturally-caffeinated, plant-based energy drinks are also available in elderberry, frosé, grape, lime and peach treatments.

“I like creative control,” Van Winkle told me during the Toronto launch. “I want to let the juices flow during projects. Joyburst allowed me to come into this project and design the can, the flavor — everything.”

Every part of the brand, from the tune to the label, leans heavily into 90’s nostalgia. (Apt, considering Van Winkle was one of the kings of the decade). Cans are glowing blue with neon pink graffiti announcing the flavors, drinks are neon-hued, and the namesake single accompanying the launch finds Van Winkle and Joyburst CEO Brad Woodgate shoot hoops in front of lava lamps and cruise in a 90’s mustang, all while wearing shimmering silver sweatsuits.

I bring the good vibes when I do my joy walk, the song buzzes. “It has the perfect amount of catchiness,” says Van Winkle. “We’ve been going around just singing it because it really gets stuck in your head.”

Van Winkle and Woodgate channel heavy 90’s nostalgia with the launch of Joyburst’s new Vanilla Ice flavor. (Photo by Ryan Emberley/Getty Images for Joyburst) Getty Images for Joyburst

“I wanted to make the product feel like the 90’s in a can,” said Van Winkle. “I want drinkers to relive the era! I want to give people a little pep in their step, get out their front door, live their life and be successful because we all need a little energy to tackle things.”

“The brand is called Joyburst for a reason,” Woodgate continues. “We want you to experience that nostalgia.”

The partnership was born when Woodgate’s team tossed around potential names for future collaborations. “When it came to creating a campaign, I thought: who was someone I would really vibe with?” explains Woodgate. “We tossed out a few names, then one of my team members mentioned Van Winkle. Are you kidding me? I am a huge fan of Vanilla. I’m 44, so I was there when he brought hip hop into the mainstream for us. ‘Ice, Ice Baby’ is an anthem.”

“When we met,” he continues, “I wanted to see if we got along, because he wouldn’t be just a brand ambassador – his name is on the product! I went to his house, and we just developed a friendship from there.”

Vanilla Ice recording his new track ‘Joyburst’ to promote the 90s icon’s energy drink. Joyburst

You can tell the two are close. They laugh in step and finish each other’s sentences. “I’m from the business world, so walking the red carpet and performing in front of people,” describes Woodgate. “Rob has made it so comfortable and easy.”

You can tell the two are close. They laugh in step and finish each other’s sentences. “I’m from the business world, so walking the red carpet and performing in front of people,” describes Woodgate. “Rob has made it so comfortable and easy.”

Van Winkle immediately turned to Woodgate: “You’ve got a great energy about you, and it’s very inspiring. You have that energy, that push, and that drive, and a lot of characteristics that I see in myself. We need those qualities to sprinkle that fairy dust on whatever we’re doing. I appreciate this opportunity and the freedom to create this product the way we want.”

Joyburst is based in Toronto, Canada and is a sister brand of No Sugar Company, a brand focusing on sans-sugar energy bars and snacks.

While the celebrity drink space is saturated — the number of actor-backed rum brands and model-slung roses surpasses 80 – Joyburst is jovial, capturing both Woodgate and Van Winkle’s love of nostalgia.

“Projects like these are all corporate until you meet the people and you gel and become real friends,” says Ice. “All of a sudden, it becomes fun. We’re going to set the world on fire with this fun. It’s an all-day, party seltzer. We give you that energy drink to get you through the day and get your work done, and the party seltzer for the night.”

A new Super Bowl ad for Cheetos stars MC Hammer. Cheetos

If you ask Stanley Kirk Burrell about his favorite Cheetos memory from childhood, it doesn’t take him long. He remembers the Fremont Pool in his hometown of Oakland, California, where he and his friends took breaks from swimming to walk over to the supermarket for Cheetos and sodas.

“When I think about Cheetos, besides the taste, what I’ve always loved is the crunch,” he told Forbes in an interview. “The crunch was both fulfilling and filling. You could eat some other snacks and say ‘Okay I’m good.’ But when you eat Cheetos, you actually kind of get full.”

That memory from decades ago is coming full circle. Burrell—who grew up to become MC Hammer—stars in a new Super Bowl ad for Cheetos featuring “Can’t Touch This,” his most famous song that also happens to turns 30 year old this year.

The 30-second commercial—created by the San Francisco-based agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and directed by Harold Einstein—will be the first time in more than a decade that Cheetos has made an appearance in the Big Game. The purpose: to promote the new Cheetos Popcorn, which as anyone might have guessed based on the song selection, riffs off the realty that eating Cheetos make touching anything a bit of a messy situation.

The spot itself features a man in various scenes eating a bag of Cheetos popcorn to get out of various situations as MC Hammer pops up here and there along the way. But MC Hammer said one of his favorite scenes is actually part of the teaser that debuted last week. The scene shows seated by a piano, humming a song while eating a bag of Cheetos with old-school packaging. As he looks to press a key, he realizes his hands are full of orange dust.

“Wait,” he says. “I can’t touch this.”

That’s when the revelation sinks in that maybe the lyric might be a little sticky, too.

According to Rachel Ferdinando, CMO of Pepsi’s Frito-Lay brand, the dust that Cheetos has become infamous for actually has a name: Cheetle. While the snack itself has been around since the late 1940s, the term was trademarked in 2005. However, the term has never really been promoted by Pepsi or Frito-Lay until now.

Asked when the brand trademarked the term, it’s been so long that Pepsi North America CMO Greg Lyons couldn’t remember the exact year offhand—explaining that they’ve been calling it Cheetle since “forever.”

“We started by just telling people this has a name and it’s called Cheetle and we thought about how to tell this story, when you’ve got Cheetle on your hands, you can’t touch this,” Ferdinando said. “It’s a very true thing. And so when you can’t touch things, there’s this oh….can’t touch this?’”

That’s when the idea hit them.

“And that’s how the whole MC Hammer thing happened,” Ferdinando said. “The concept fits really well and given it was a nostalgic moment for us coming back after 11 years, who better to partner with than with the iconic artist MC Hammer who is loved by everyone it seems and the song is iconic.”

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The commercial for 3M’s Command Picture Hanging Strips. Photo via YouTube.