Right now, Snus Vikings has an incredible offer on ELF nicotine pouches, which are 5 for £12, and if you spend more than £40 on ELF products, you’ll get a free ELF T-shirt or baseball cap, and because of this we thought that we'd look at some of the more unusual promotional items that companies have tried over the years.
Our fantastic free t-shirt or cap may not be as bizarre as a chicken keyboard, but in fairness, that is probably a good thing.
Every so often, a company decides that normality is overrated and produces something so bizarre that people remember it years later.
That is, ultimately, the whole point of a good promotion. It should give people something to talk about, something they’ll mention to a mate, send in a group chat, or bring up years later as an example of a brand completely committing to the bit. Some of the following were clever, some were absurd, and some were clearly approved by people running on very little sleep.
Nosulus Rift: the machine that let you smell South Park farts
Ubisoft’s Nosulus Rift was created as a promotional stunt for the South Park games The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, and it remains one of the most ridiculous gaming tie-ins ever made. It was a VR-style nose mask designed to release smells in sync with in-game flatulence, which is both revolting and, annoyingly, quite committed to the source material.
It was never meant to become a normal consumer product, but that was hardly the point. As a publicity stunt, it worked perfectly because it was so stupidly specific that nobody could ignore it. Plenty of branded merchandise is forgettable within minutes; a machine that sprays fart smells into your face is not.
KFC’s fried chicken gadgets
KFC Japan produced one of the strangest branded ranges ever by turning fried chicken into consumer tech. Among the more baffling items were drumstick-shaped iPhones, chicken-themed USB sticks, pillows and a keyboard in which nearly every key had been replaced with little pieces of chicken, apart from the K, F and C.
It sounds made up, but that is what makes it such a perfect promotional idea. Nobody needed any of it, but loads of people were willing to talk about it because it was so visually ridiculous. KFC understood that once branded merchandise crosses a certain line into nonsense, it stops being a freebie and becomes entertainment.
Colonel Sanders as a pool float
Not content with chicken-themed electronics in Japan, KFC in the United States also produced a Colonel Sanders pool float. This inflatable version of the Colonel had space to hold fried chicken and a drink, which is honestly a fairly complete vision of summer from a fast-food brand.
There is something admirable about how little restraint was shown here. A normal company might settle for branded sunglasses or a beach towel. KFC instead asked the far more important question: what if the founder of the company could drift around a swimming pool while holding your lunch?
The Dreamcast tuna can for Seaman
The promotional item for Sega’s cult game Seaman may be one of the most unsettling on the list. Styled like a standard “Chicken of the Sea” tuna tin, the can featured the face of the game’s human-headed fish creature and leaned heavily into the title’s surreal sense of humour.
The best part was the voice box inside. When opened, it played a line from Leonard Nimoy or Seaman himself: “I’m Seaman. You can’t send me back if that’s what you’re thinking.” Depending on the version, the tin also included either a small plush or gummy worms. It was deeply weird, faintly creepy and exactly the right sort of promotional item for a game that was itself deeply weird and faintly creepy.
Tourism BC’s giant vending machine
In 2012, Tourism BC built a giant vending machine that dispensed things far more exciting than a packet of crisps. Depending on what visitors selected, they could end up with prizes such as a bike or even a kayak, turning a familiar everyday object into a genuinely memorable travel campaign.
It was clever because it brought together spectacle, interactivity and a proper sense of place. Rather than just telling people British Columbia was adventurous and outdoorsy, it let them physically experience that message. It was still a gimmick, obviously, but a very effective one.
The Kate Moss guitar giveaway
Back in 2011, Bizarre and Rimmel teamed up to give away a Union Jack guitar signed by Kate Moss. The obvious question, of course, is why Kate Moss was signing a guitar in the first place, given that she is not a musician and has never been especially associated with guitars, unless you include some of her famous partners.
That disconnect is exactly what made the promotion so oddly compelling. It was a celebrity item with just enough randomness to make people stop and stare at it. Rationally, it made no sense, like Will Ferrell's character in Stepbrothers having a Samurai Sword signed by Randy Jackson; as a tabloid-style giveaway designed to attract attention, it made perfect sense.
Muscle March and the fake protein supplement
Namco Bandai promoted Muscle March, a gloriously odd game where you got to experience being a bodybuilder, with a fake protein supplement canister and a pair of skin-tight underwear. There is really no elegant way to explain that, because the entire point was that it was absurd.
Still, it fitted the game perfectly. Rather than trying to sand off the edges and make the campaign feel more respectable than the game itself, the promotion embraced its silliness and ran straight at it. That sort of commitment nearly always works better than pretending something strange is normal.
Cards Against Humanity says thank you, sort of
Cards Against Humanity released 30 new holiday cards and let buyers choose what they wanted to pay for them. In keeping with the brand’s whole personality, people who decided to pay nothing still got the cards, but were also sent a message saying: “Thanks, asshole.”
It was rude, funny and very obviously written by people who understood their audience. Another brand trying that line would probably have looked desperate or annoying. Cards Against Humanity made it work because it felt entirely natural for them, which is usually the difference between a stunt landing well and falling flat.
Lopez Tonight and the branded water cooler
The marketing team behind Lopez Tonight came up with a promotion that was less flashy than some of the others, but weird enough to stick in the mind. They produced branded water coolers on the basis that office workers chatting around them about last night’s television might be nudged into talking about the programme itself.
It was a strangely literal take on the phrase “water cooler conversation”, but that was exactly why it stood out. It took a bit of media jargon and turned it into a physical promotional object. Slightly daft, yes, but clever in a way that a lot of standard TV promotion never is.
Why odd freebies still work
The best promotional gifts are rarely the most expensive or even the most useful. They are the ones that make people pause for a second and think, “Who on earth came up with this?” Once a giveaway becomes a story in its own right, it has already done far more than a standard bit of branded merchandise ever could.
That is also why a decent freebie still matters when it actually feels worth having. Not everything needs to be a tuna tin with a voice box or a fart-smelling headset. Sometimes the appeal is simply getting a solid deal and a branded extra you’ll genuinely wear.
