Trix for Adults: Branding Fun

I recently learned a fantastic game to play with all crowds (ideal group size: 5-9 people). It’s a combination of pictionary and telephone. I guess that means it’s called Telenary. Anyways … we played it the other weekend in Vermont and had a blast. One particular set of cards is particularly insightful.

In order to understand what’s going on here’s a quick recap of how the game works: one person writes a phrase on a card. The next person reads that phrase and does their best to draw it on the next card. They hide the original phrase and pass their drawing to the next person, who interprets that drawing and writes a corresponding phrase.

The original phrase in this batch is “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!”. I happened to be the one who wrote the phrase, because I thought it would be fun (spoiler alert: success!).

This is interesting enough. It’s amazing that Trix’s marketing campaign is so well known that I wrote it during a casual parlor game. I’m not a big TV watcher and I rarely eat Trix.

But it’s clear from the next two cards that Trix’s branding is far-reaching. The next card was drawn by a baby-boomer who didn’t have cable TV until a couple year’s ago.

It’s a great rendering of the Trix cereal box. Amusingly, it’s accompanied by a jug of milk, a bowl and … a sugar bowl. Haha, perfect.

Other than a missing exclamation point, the phrase is exactly right. This is actually pretty rare for this game.  For better or worse the Trix advertising campaign is easily recalled for many of us. Businesses take different paths to get there, but becoming a part of common culture is a dream come true for many brands.

For Evan Webster Ink, a national marketing campaign isn’t feasible or desired. We’d prefer to stay smaller and more connected to our customers, but we do strive to be recalled when screen printing is needed. Any ideas for a good mascot?!

Things take an interesting turn due to a particularly sinister (sad?) bunny. Enjoy the rest of the cards.