The hottest mixtape of 2016 was dropped April 1, and not from someone you would expect -- no Kanye’s went into further debt for the creation of this tape. This fire production came from a lil’ guy known as Hamburger Helper.
Yep, you nailed it, the beef stroganoff you still have nightmares about from when your mom had to throw together a quick meal. Yep, that stomachache out of a box that had the creepy happy glove on it. Believe it or not, that’s the lil’ guy I’m referring to. For those of you fooled by this, and thought that Hamburger Helper was actually some new bizarre rap artist that sings about ‘cookin’ in da kitchen,’ well happy April fools, they got you.
Everyone loves April fools day (HA), and Hamburger Helper’s five-track mixtape was one of the best I’ve ever seen, or should I say, heard. I’d workout to the song, and I’d have a beer or 4 getting jiggy wid it. The mixtape called Watch the Stove was a lovely and very intentional pun on Jay Z and Kanye’s Watch the Throne. The tracks sounds much like your hot 2016 Hip Hop mix, and fooled a lot of people. Those who they didn’t fool were most likely pleasantly surprised and okay with this sort of branded content. I’m not even sure if it has ever been done.
Today we are so used to the classic try-hard social media branding, throw a picture on Instagram, shoot out a little tweet on Twitter, junk that people just scroll on by. This, this is new. We are not accustomed to companies dropping their relatively decent mixtape on Soundcloud, and I love it. I will now be more willing to buy Hamburger Helper products than I ever was before—you have earned my respect.
Other companies should take a hint from this humorous stunt. Get rid of the lame memes and your passé jargon, not too many people listen anymore. That sort of market is a safe call, but step out of the box and put your Hamburger Helper glove on, get those millennials to care, because when they/we/me care, we talk. Get people to talk.
Now, have some stroganoff, a beer, and kick back and jam out. Kudos Hamburger Helper you’ve truly outdone yourself this time.
