Smoothie Wars

McDonald’s recently entered new territory by launching a line of “real fruit” smoothies to expand its already super-sized menu. And in what may be considered a calculated retribution, Jamba Juice is fighting back with the launch of the Cheeseburger Chill Smoothie.

Check out the commercial:

The beauty of this campaign: the product it is advertising is fake. It’s an ironic campaign calling out McDonald’s for entering the smoothie category the same way it took on Starbuck’s with its McCafes. But without further explanation, does it really communicate the message that Mickey D’s should stick to what it does best (burgers)? Most likely no, but it is getting a lot of attention from food and advertising industry reporters.

This campaign is great not only because the concept of a cheeseburger smoothie is so disgusting it’s funny, but because it’s so preposterous it prompts you to find out if the Cheeseburger Chill Smoothie is actually real. Most of the links in the articles covering the new smoothie direct you to JambaJuice.com. When you first visit the site, it appears the smoothie is real. Dig a little deeper and the site lets you off the hook. JJ is not, in fact, getting into the burger business – instead it calls out the entire idea as being as weird a concept as a burger chain entering the smoothie business.