Et tu, Dunkin'?
One location of the coffee and doughnuts chain was singled out when, as part of promo for their newest pumpkin offerings, their outdoor sign went a little...off the rails. A few passersby snapped and posted photos, and the reception was immediate: "Yeah, same."
The offending sign was from a Dunkin' stop in Portland, Maine, and the culprit? 18-year-old Adam Taddia, an employee who was just having some good ol', meme-y fun.
Dunkin' corporate saw the appeal of the sign, playing off of the public's general excitement for pumpkin every year (they brought it back earlier than ever this month, even beating out Starbucks for the flavor's return) and how, maybe, it could be a bright spot in an otherwise abysmal (that's being generous) few months.
"This just goes to show that even in summer, when it's 90 degrees outside, nothing creates excitement like the return of pumpkin,” Dunkin's vice president of brand stewardship, Drayton Martin, said in a statement, according to the Boston Globe.
"My boss couldn't think of anything and he said, 'Put whatever you want up there,'" Taddia said. "I was feeling goofy. I wanted to put something funny up there."
Zahra also shared a video of presumably her brother messing around in some kind of Dunkin' costume (?), which, when you see it, makes the sign funnies that much more understandable.
Take note, corporate America! The more unhinged your messaging, the more your customers relate. Welcome to 2020.