It’s Friday. Retail Therapy is back and we're bringing you the Home Depot co-founder's best dance moves, futuristic bags of chips that double as breathalyzers and a horrifying in-store prank.
Read this, and more, in this week’s Retail Therapy.
Home Depot co-founder busts a move
Don’t let 74-year-old Arthur Blank’s age fool you: The Home Depot co-founder and Atlanta Falcons owner could pull his own weight in a dance battle.
This week, Blank was spotted getting jiggy with it on stage while celebrating his team’s NFC Championship Game victory against the Green Bay Packers. The team will now head to the Super Bowl next weekend to face off the Patriots — and clearly, Blank could not be happier.
Although to be fair, he seemed pretty happy when they beat they Seahawks last week, too.
#InBrotherhood we break it down! pic.twitter.com/ZjudQC8Z65
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) January 15, 2017
Breathalyzers for chip-aholics
In other Super Bowl news, Frito-Lay’s Tostitos chip brand and ride hailing service Uber have teamed up to create the ultimate invention for the biggest football day of the year: An alcohol-sensing bag of chips that can tell if you've been drinking.
Unfortunately, you won't find the chip bags at your corner convenience or grocery store because the snack brand isn't actually selling the bags to consumers. It’s all part of a marketing campaign to raise awareness for responsible driving.
Brian Sozzi of The Street was able to test the product, which measures your breath to see if there is alcohol in it. After taking a swig of whisky, Sozzi breathed on the bag, causing a red light to flash a picture of a steering wheel and the message: “Don’t drink and drive.” If that isn’t cool enough, the bag is designed to let tipsy chip-eaters touch their phone to the bag and call an Uber (with a $10 discount).
While the futuristic chip bag actually works, most consumers won't get to test it out this Super Bowl. But at least 25,000 customers will still get a discount on their Uber rides home.
Samara crawls out of TV store
Few other things in life offer the same satisfaction as scaring someone to near-death in a very public prank. Ashton Kutcher certainly agrees. But if any company has made an art (and a living) out of scaring people, it’s viral marketing agency Thinkmodo.
In its latest prank, which teases the latest installment in The Ring horror film series, Adweek reports the company set up shop at a TV and electronics store. Thinkmodo had “salesmen” show off various TVs to unsuspecting customers, who watch as the TVs cuts from innocuous videos of scuba divers or couples doing yoga in the sunset to a video of that creepy long-haired girl crawling out of a well.
Except the long-haired girl is real. Contortionist Bonnie Morgan, who appears in the films as Samara, crawls out of the TV and scares the living daylights out of unwitting customers. Well, that’s definitely one way for retailers to drive traffic — right out of their stores.
The latest lazy fashion trend
Just when we thought fashion trends couldn’t get any more casual — think designer ripped sneakers, Cheetos-branded cheetah suits and the entire athleisure phenomenon — the fashion world has given consumers two thumbs up to wearing pajamas in public.
Earlier this month, Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the NPD Group, predicted in a blog post that "casualization will give pajamas new function" in 2017.
The trend is already taking off, and not just on college campuses. Popular social media bloggers and models are touting the "get up and go" trend. So go ahead, enjoy those extra few minutes of sleep and go to work in your pjs.
