CHEESE AND CHONG: BRINGING TOPPERSTIX STRAINS TO A CORNER NEAR WISCONSIN

There’s turkey for Thanksgiving. Barbecue on the 4th of July. But for the Dude-Where’s-My-Car consumer, it’s fair to ask, “Dude, where should I eat on 4/20?”

Luckily, coincidently, and completely by happenstance, Toppers created a regional, worldwide event to answer just such a question. Worldwide Topperstix™ Day (or WWTD) offers $1 Topperstix on April 20th to the fully baked who love things fully baked. And over the last several years, we at Darling have had the pleasure of getting the word out. 

With hazy headlines and pizza paraphernalia, our previous work boldly and bluntly (see below) announced WWTD as the day for macrodosing on Toppers’ dope deal.

But as we began thinking up this year’s iteration, we came upon a realization you’d most often associate with a puff and a pass. When it came to the green stuff, the landscape had shifted. It wasn’t taboo. If we were to trace the trends, we could no longer promote WWTD as edgy. Instead, it had to be approachable. 

After some time with our grow lights, we cultivated an idea that was less dank and more dispensary: Topperstix strains. 

This new direction combines a taste of Saturday morning with the sticky icky tapestries from the minds of herby aficionados. It’s a departure from our brand standards and our general rule of showing food unillustrated, but we figured if we were going to reach our intended audience, adult cartoons were the way to go.   

We extended our social efforts with a Topperstix webpage takeover where all 9 varieties dressed up as their alter egos, and we’ve had fun assigning said personas to the members of the office (try to guess who’s Grandaddy Pepperoni). 

We’re excited to see how this fresh approach gets customers off the couch. Which honestly, is a lot harder than you think considering what’s gluing them to it.