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Dunkin’ launches ad campaign to promote iced beveragesDunkin’ launches ad campaign to promote iced beverages

The star-studded series of restaurant commercials features Will Arnett, Corporate Natalie, Joey Fatone, A.J. McLean, Nick DiGiovanni, Yoon Ahn, SypherPK, Maia Reficco, Hilton Carter, and Melissa Sapini

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

June 18, 2024

3 Min Read
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A photo depicting the current Dunkin'Terns campaign.Dunkin'

Dunkin’ is launching a new series of star-studded commercials with actor Will Arnett and social media influencer Corporate Natalie along with an array of other celebrities who are dubbed Dunkin’Terns to promote iced beverages this summer.

The ads have been developed by Artists Equity, the studio of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon that has also produced other commercials for the quick service coffee-and-doughnut chain.

In the latest round, Arnett and Corporate Natalie enlist celebrities including ’90s boy band stars Joey Fatone of NSYNC and A.J. McLean of The Backstreet Boys, chef-influencer Nick DiGiovanni, fashion designer Yoon Ahn, gaming streamer SypherPK, actress Maia Reficco, stylist Hilton Carter, and Melissa Sapini, who is Miss Massachusetts for 2024.

The “Dunkin’Terns” play on the brand’s name follows the DunKings, a fictional band featured in an Artists Equity commercial that aired during the Super Bowl with members Affleck, Damon, and football great Tom Brady failing to impress Jennifer Lopez.

Dunkin’ and Artists Equity have been featuring celebrities in their marketing for a couple of years now. Affleck has appeared in many Dunkin’ ads, including with other entertainers such as rapper Ice Spice.

Lifestyle celebrity Martha Stewart also has been featured on social media for Dunkin’, teaching her audience how to shake iced beverages properly and also providing a recipe for the trendy Espresso Martini cocktail while also promoting Dunkin’ branded Espresso glasses.

Related:Dunkin’ teams with rapper Jelly Roll in National Doughnut Day promotion

The latest ad campaign, the first commercial of which aired on June 17, is a series, starting with Arnett and Natalie briefing the other celebrities about their mission.

That will be followed by a commercial in which Fatone and McLean who are currently on tour together, suggest releasing a song promoting Dunkin’s iced coffee.

Next, Arnett and Natalie pitch, badly, a commercial that would star Maia Reficco.

In a more effective pitch, SypherPK is inspired to promote Dunkin’s Sparkd’ Energy drinks.

Actual Dunkin’ research & development team member Dan Cole is in the next ad with DiGiovanni announcing a blueberry-and-doughnut iced coffee

And then Ahn says she’s working on a capsule collection for the brand.

The campaign comes as Dunkin’ prepares for its own Iced Coffee Day on June 20, during which the chain, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Inspire Brands, donates $1 for every iced coffee purchased to its Joy in Childhood Foundation to help children’s hospitals nationwide.

It also has launched a "Painting and Playing with Joy" program in which it partners with hospitals to host painting and music activities for patients and their families on Iced Coffee Day. Dunkin’ said that the foundation has donated more than $50 million in grants since it was founded in 2006.

Related:Dunkin’ chief marketing officer Jillian McVicar Nelson highlights its fun image

Finally, the chain of more than 13,200 locations worldwide also is releasing a limited-edition iced coffee inspired iPhone case for $15.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

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About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
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Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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