Chilli con cheek: Mingle Seasoning boss cashes in on Carrie & Tommy’s c-bomb blunder

When Tommy Little told listeners this week that his reheated chilli con carne was “too hot to eat”, Carrie Bickmore came back with a pun: “Chilli con can’t!”

Unfortunately, the pun isn’t what people heard. With her quick delivery and the way she pronounced it, a good chunk of the audience heard the C-bomb instead.

Most brand owners would have heard Bickmore’s on-air slip this week, laughed, and gone back to their inbox. Instead, Mingle Seasoning's Jordyn Evans went to Officeworks.

“So Carrie Bickmore got caught on live radio this week saying this,” the Mingle founder told her Instagram followers. Then she laid out her plan: “So Carrie and Tommy, I think you chilli con carne, and I’m gonna make it for you, drop it off at the radio station.”

Then she pitched the hosts: “Tommy, I think it’ll be better than your leftovers because it involves a little bit of Mingle.”

The rest of the video plays like a heist movie made on a pantry budget. “Okay, I gotta go to Officeworks and print something,” Evans said, before showing off the finished signage. “I literally just guillotined this. Ta-da! I’ve got the goods.”

A short drive later, she reported back: “Okay, I just dropped it off. Wish us luck.”

READ MORE: 'Not how I wanted it to end': Carrie and Tommy confirm Hit exit

Why the pot of mince matters

Marketers call this newsjacking: attaching a brand to a story that already has the public’s attention. Plenty of brands try it, usually with a reactive meme posted three days late and approved by four people.

Evans got three things right. The product fit the moment, since a seasoning brand and a botched chilli recipe were made for each other. She moved while the story was still hot. And it cost her almost nothing: some mince, a print job, and a car trip.

She also made the video work whether the hosts took the bait or not. Mingle’s caption punned that followers could “Chili Con CAN with some Mingle goodies”, tagged both hosts and the show, and promised followers they could “stay tuned” to see if the brand gets a mention. That turns a one-off stunt into a cliffhanger, with a sequel already scheduled.

“Guys, now we have to listen to today’s radio show to see if they mention us,” Evans said. “You gotta be in it to win it, hey.”

We've seen this movie before

It’s a well-worn playbook, and it pays off when brands move fast. Oreo’s “you can still dunk in the dark” post during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout earned the press the title of the night’s marketing war winner. After the 2017 Oscars Best Picture mix-up, Specsavers dusted off “Should’ve gone to Specsavers” and got nearly 25,000 likes before it put paid spend behind the post. 

This year, when a truck full of KitKats was stolen, Nestlé replied that it had “always encouraged people to have a break with KitKat”, then built a “Stolen KitKat Tracker” with Burson. According to DesignRush, the stunt drew more than 13,000 media mentions in 30 days and won the PR Grand Prix at Cannes Lions.

Digital PR and content strategist Ava Kelly told Press Gazette that “nailing a newsjacking post can be equal to months of marketing efforts for a business”, while The Audit Lab’s Richard Greenwood said it all comes down to value: “If your brand can add value to the conversation and help make people feel something in the newsjacking – whether that’s through a good data piece, expert opinion or some humorous social media engagement – then it works.”

The wind-down

Whether Bickmore and Little give the chilli a plug on air is almost beside the point. Evans has already turned someone else’s bleeped blooper into free content, goodwill, and a story for her brand.

“What a day,” she signed off. “Crazy day.”

The C-word of the week, it turns out, was “content”.