Restaurant Menus Will Now Start Showing Ads, Just Like Everything Else

Ads are absolutely everywhere. Whether you’re driving on the highway or riding the subway, there’s a company trying to sell you something. And you don’t even have to leave your house to see them — they’re all over your phone. Some people (including myself) can swear that Instagram and Facebook are eavesdropping on our conversations when an ad about something you were JUST talking about magically appears on your timeline. But not all are massive billboards or flashy signs — some are much more subtle than others and they’re making their way into restaurant menus.

Although food and drink-related sponsorships are nothing new, there’s a growing trend that centers an entire menu around them. But it’s not just major liquor companies cashing in on these partnerships. One beverage company landed its own cola, and its drinks usually cost only 99 cents.

This month, Danny Bowien’s Mission Chinese Food in Brooklyn, New York, debuted its latest themed menu called “Great Buy!” in partnership with Arizona Iced Tea.

What’s on the iced tea-centric menu? The “Great Buy!” promotion includes Smoked Green Tea Noodles ($9.99), Mucho Mango Fried Rice ($9.99), Green Tea Ginsenger cocktail ($9.99), and the Grapeade Ambrosia dessert (99 cents).

Yes, that’s right. A dessert for only 99 cents! The inexpensive price Arizona Beverages sells its iced tea drinks for.

And it looks like the Mission Chinese Food and Arizona Beverages partnership is paying off.

Same! Can't even tell you how many of these I would drink a day 😂 I totally have to check out Mission Chinese Food now! -Mike

— Sprinklr (@Sprinklr) May 8, 2019

While some people are loving the idea of an entire menu being dedicated to the canned beverages, others — especially in the restaurant industry — aren’t too keen on the idea of letting big companies cash in on their businesses.

Celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who has endorsed products such as Fage yogurt himself, told the New York Times that his restaurants and menus are “completely sacred” to him.

“I would never take a product and force it into my menu, ever. Ever,” Flay said. “If I liked the product, I might create some ideas for their website or some platform they had. But I would never implement it into my restaurant.”

But Bowien stands by the partnership and claims that he “recognized a lot of synergy” between Arizona and Mission Chinese Food after attending one of the company’s pop-up shops in 2018, according to Forbes.

And the feeling is mutual. Arizona co-founder Wesley Vultaggio told Forbes that Bowien’s values “so closely align with Arizona’s core values.”

“We all believe in the democratization of culture — price shouldn’t be a barrier to great food and beverages,” Vultaggio said. “AriZona always works to stay ahead of the curve and Danny’s inventive spin on Chinese food just lines up perfectly.”

As exciting as the partnership sounds between the Bowien and the Vultaggios, there’s also the question of whether or not a popular restaurant should be promoting products that typically contain high levels of sugar.

In New York Times’s Critic Notebook of the latest collaboration, Pete Wells writes that some of the menu items weren’t as sweet as they could’ve been.

He also raised the issue of the increasing obesity and diabetes rates in Bushwick, where you can get items off the “Great Buy!” menu at Mission Chinese Food.

And when Wells questioned Bowien about the statistics, he said he was unaware and didn’t have a comment.

Regardless, the residents of Bushwick will be no stranger to the Arizona drink ads all over the neighborhood for the month that the menu will be promoted.

But it most likely won’t be the last you see of the Mission Chinese Food and Arizona collaboration.

Spencer Vultaggio told Forbes there will be new Arizona products and partnerships in 2019.

He also teased about the future of Bowien’s restaurant and the 99-cent iced tea beverages.

Looks like the future of sponsored restaurant menus is here to stay.