Many of the new marketing campaigns this week are taking playful, humorous and wacky approaches to customer communication. Catch up on the latest stories and news you need to know in our latest Weekly Must Reads.

The Fast Food Chicken Sandwich Trolling Continues

Last week, McDonald’s launched their new crispy chicken sandwich with an exclusive limited release they called “Chickn Drop.” Through a landing page at chkndrop.com, the brand offered a small group of customers early access to the sandwich. When competitor Popeyes heard about the campaign, they quickly bought about 50 URLs with similar domain names, so that McDonald’s customers who mistyped the webpage would be redirected to a Popeyes page. Popeyes used these URLs to distribute 10,000 promo codes offering their own fried chicken sandwich for free.

This is certainly not the first prank played between fast food companies in recent years. This stunt from Popeyes is a continuation of the ongoing “chicken sandwich wars,” which unofficially began back in 2019 when Popeyes launched their own sandwich and sparked a Twitter debate among fast food brands. Learn more about the latest battle here: https://www.adweek.com/agencies/popeyes-trolled-mcdonalds-chicken-sandwich-launch-site-by-buying-up-every-similar-url/

Jameson Whiskey Pays People to Drink

The upcoming St. Patrick’s Day holiday is just days away from the one-year anniversary of US shutdowns for COVID-19. According to recent research, more than half of US workers have not used vacation time since the pandemic began, so Jameson Whiskey is making a move to encourage more time off. In a new “St. Patrick’s Time Off” campaign, the alcohol brand is offering $50 to 1,000 people who take the holiday off – presumably, so they can drink lots of Irish whiskey. Jameson will also make a $50 donation to Restaurant Worker’s Community Foundation (RWCF) in the name of each winner.

In addition to the main campaign, Jameson is selling kits of home bartending essentials for St. Patrick’s Day celebrators. The brand is also offering cocktail recipes, themed Zoom backgrounds and pre-written out of office messages. In the coming weeks, expect to see commercials for the campaign on Hulu, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Check out all the details here: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/jameson-pays-drinkers-to-take-time-off-on-st-patricks-day/595235/

Gorilla Glue’s Growing Sales

Super glue brand Gorilla Glue has been all over social media lately, and it’s not due to any direct marketing from the company itself. Earlier this month, TikTok user Tessica Brown put Gorilla Glue in her hair in a viral video, which quickly devolved into a concerning emergency room trip and ultimate recovery that has been closely followed by social media users. Apart from a note of concern for Brown’s condition and a reminder to not apply their product to any body parts, Gorilla Glue has kept quiet, instead allowing social media to organically carry the conversation.

Since the original video went viral, Amazon searches for Gorilla Glue have risen by 4,378 percent. Experts say Gorilla Glue has taken the right approach to this unexpected situation. Brown’s condition was thankfully not life-threatening, and by halting their own brand communication, Gorilla Glue avoided appearing insensitive or greedy to profit from the situation. Plus, all of the brand exposure was earned at no cost of their own. Find out more about the whole debacle here: https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/gorilla-glue-sales-soar-entirely-unsolicited-social-media-windfall/2315586

A New Social Platform on the Horizon

Could the next big social media app already be on the rise? A new platform called Clubhouse, a social audio messaging app, recently reached 8 million global downloads, though it’s still in a prelaunch invite-only format. Nearly 5 million of those app downloads have come in the past two weeks alone. The sharp increase in growth is likely due to the recent involvement of high-profile tech figures and celebrities, including Elon Musk, Mark Cuban and Oprah. Despite being just 11 months old, Clubhouse is already valued at more than one billion dollars.

According to Clubhouse’s creators, the platform is designed to “build a social experience that felt more human—where instead of posting, you could gather with other people and talk.” Others have described it as imagining if LinkedIn could talk. Get all the inside information on the fast-growing platform here: https://www.insidehook.com/article/internet/what-is-clubhouse