According to multiple healthcare studies, the USA sees a 30% spike in vasectomy operations during March largely driven by men aiming to time their recovery to coincide with NCAA March Madness.
So Twisted Tea Hard Iced Tea launched ‘Twisted Tea VasectomUndies’ – boxer shorts with a pair of strategically placed pouches to hold two 12-ounce cans of the beverage – as the Boston Beer Company owned brand rolled out a branded merchandise marketing stunt to leverage the 2023 college hoops tournament.
The limited-edition boxers (available in small to 2XL), which are released in limited edition batch drops on the Tea Store at 12pm at the start of each round of the tournament, are positioned as the perfect solution for “hoops fans on the bench who have cut down the nets”.
The brand’s light-hearted, comic and innuendo-filled approach promotes the novelty boxers through digital and social content and via a PR push aimed at generating marginal e-commerce revenue and capturing first-party consumer data.
“Twisted Tea VasectomUndies are our twisted answer to an outrageous cultural phenomenon that inspires thousands every year,” said Twisted Tea Senior Brand Manager Erica Taylor.
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Beer alternatives such as Twisted Tea Hard Iced Tea,hard seltzers, spiked sodas and canned cocktails are battling for US marketing share and this stunt seeks to raise the Boston Beer Company brand’s profile during March Madness.
This playful, yet functional novelty merchandise marketing tactic – one that was growing in popularity prior to the pandemic, stalled during Covid-19, and is now returning to marketers’ playbooks – aims to help the tea brand stand out in the crowded March Madness marketing mayhem.
This campaign is reminiscent of the similarly themed Buffalo Wild Wings ‘Jewel Stool’ campaign from 2019: a branded barstool with an inbuilt cooling system in the seat designed to aid in vasectomy recovery.
Of course, it’s not only vasectomy operations that are affected by March Madness but also work productivity.
A 2023 study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas (the Chicago based global outplacement & career transitioning firm) estimated that the annual college basketball tournament costs employers as much as $17.3bn each year in lost productivity.
Time for tea?
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