Surely by now, you’ve seen Wawa’s Hoagiefest promotion in pretty much everywhere advertising can be consumed. The campaign is eye-grabbing in large part because of the Yellow Submarine-esque artwork, but delve into the Hoagiefest website, and you’ll find a whole bunch of stuff you never thought you wanted. Next thing you know, you’re downloading Hoagiefest wallpaper and listening to the Hoagiefest jams at right, which, very strangely, are not that bad. Especially for Hoagiefest jams. They’re by Parry Gripp of Nerf Herder, and, well, anybody else kind of getting a BC Camplight vibe here? Maybe some early Brendan Benson? Weird. When Wawa initially went to the ad firm responsible for the Hoagiefest campaign, Austin, TX’s The Richards Group, a lot of local firms were all kinds of dickhurt. But you have to wonder if a local firm mired in Phillies promos and direct-to-old-folks marketing would have come up with jingles this sublime — which, not for nothing, are jingle-riffic in a time when the jingle seems almost dead. So rock on, Hoagiefest, rock on. But just remember what the man said: Nobody eat the brown Shorti.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 1:40 pm.