Hails & Fails – September 4th 2026
This week’s Hails & Fails brings together a Barbie-pink supermarket, flying fries and a year’s worth of fakeaways. Aldi has given one of its stores a Barbie makeover, McCain has taken air frying to new heights, and Iceland is rewarding the nation’s biggest fakeaway fans. Meanwhile, Snickers has taken its famous slogan into the AI age, but is a digital chocolate bar a clever evolution or simply another brand jumping on the AI bandwagon?
HAILS
Aldi turns its aisles Barbie pink
Aldi has given its Barnet store a Barbie makeover to celebrate the launch of its first Barbie Aldimania Dreamland Doll, even swapping its familiar branding for Barbie pink. Turning an actual store pink takes the collaboration beyond the product itself, creating an eye-catching photo opportunity and giving shoppers something to talk about before the doll even hits shelves.
McCain takes air frying to new heights
McCain took its fries to the skies over the Bank Holiday, delivering free portions of Crispy French Fries by drone to picnickers in London’s Brockwell Park. Dubbed ‘The Fry Drop’, the one-day stunt brought a hot food usually reserved for home or restaurants directly into the middle of a summer picnic. It’s simple, visual and unexpected, while the link between drones, air delivery and the brand’s playful nod to ‘air frying’ gives the activation an extra layer.
A clever way of putting McCain at the centre of a familiar Bank Holiday occasion and creating something people would want to film and share.
Iceland serves up a year of fakeaways
Iceland is searching for Britain’s biggest fakeaway superfans, offering them the chance to win a year’s supply of their favourite restaurant-inspired food. It’s a fun way of promoting Iceland’s growing Food Hall range while tapping into a genuine shift towards recreating takeaway favourites at home.
Rather than simply telling shoppers its fakeaways can replace the real thing, Iceland is putting the people who already love them at the heart of the campaign.
FAIL
Snickers gives AI a bite nobody asked for
Snickers has taken its famous ‘You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’ platform into the AI era with Hungr.AI, a digital chocolate bar users can ‘feed’ to a chatbot when it starts giving strange or inaccurate answers. The connection to the long-running campaign makes sense, but does anyone really need a virtual chocolate bar for their AI? At a time when brands are rushing to attach themselves to the latest technology, this feels more like AI for AI’s sake than a genuinely useful or memorable extension of the Snickers brand. A clever link to an iconic campaign, but perhaps one digital innovation that was better left on the wrapper.
