Coca-Cola glaze on sushi, Red Bull in sorbet, or Oreo in tiramisu: what once sounded like a social-media gimmick is increasingly becoming reality in restaurants and pop-up menus. Big brands like Coca-Cola, Oreo, or Red Bull are no longer satisfied with billboards and commercials. Instead, they enter the kitchen directly — as inspiration, ingredient, or headline act. This trend signals a new stage in food culture, where marketing and gastronomy fuse. For Gen Z, ironic or absurd food pairings are not only edible novelties but also social currency online. And what begins as a playful stunt might soon become a new standard.
Trend Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Trend Name | Brand-Infused Cuisine |
| Key Components | FMCG products used as culinary ingredients, chef collabs, social virality |
| Spread | From pop-up menus to fast-food giants to fine dining experiments |
| Examples | Oreo tiramisu, Red Bull sorbet, Pringles chicken, Cola-glazed ribs |
| Social Media | TikTok “weird food pairings,” Instagram menu stunts, YouTube collabs |
| Demographics | Gen Z and Millennials driving discovery, sharing, and irony consumption |
| Wow Factor | The shock value of seeing iconic brands recontextualized on the plate |
| Trend Phase | Early mainstream adoption; moving from gimmick to normalized offering |
Brands find a new life in restaurants
For decades, brands like Coca-Cola or Oreo invested heavily in sponsorships — stadium banners, celebrity ads, and product placement in films. But consumer attention has shifted. Advertising is background noise; what gets noticed is something that enters the cultural conversation. That’s where food comes in.
Instead of running commercials, brands increasingly collaborate with restaurants, chefs, or food entrepreneurs. According to Food Business News, restaurant collabs are now a strategic growth channel. By putting their logos and flavors on limited menus, FMCG companies gain direct relevance in everyday consumption, not just grocery shelves.
Brand‑Infused Cuisine
A quick, minimal mobile snapshot of how FMCG brands move from ads to plates.
- Pop‑ups & limited drops
- Fast food x snack tie‑ins
- Fine‑dining one‑offs
- Cola‑glazed nigiri
- Oreo tiramisu
- Red Bull sorbet
This shift has a marketing logic: it’s not about showing you a Coke, it’s about serving you one — in a form you didn’t expect, like a soy-glazed nigiri with cola reduction. The plate itself becomes the advertisement.
Irony turns into flavor for Gen Z
Gen Z has developed a unique relationship with brands: half-ironic, half-embracing. What older generations dismissed as “selling out” is now part of playful cultural remixing. A sushi roll topped with Nutella is not seen as an abomination, but as content worth sharing.
The NPD Group noted that Gen Z is reshaping the future of food through bold experimentation and social-first dining. For them, flavor is only half the story. The other half is the cultural signal: eating “Skittles salad” communicates fun, irony, and digital fluency.
This is why branded cuisine works especially well online. The juxtaposition of fine-dining aesthetics with supermarket brands is meme material. Posting about a Pepsi carpaccio is both a culinary experience and a social performance.
Pop-up kitchens and fast food collabs act as laboratories
Before entering the mainstream, many of these brand experiments appear in temporary pop-ups. Chefs and food entrepreneurs treat them as labs where bold ideas can be tested without the weight of tradition. Oreo tiramisu, Red Bull sorbet, or Pringles-breaded chicken often debut in these limited events before spreading wider.
Fast-food chains are also quick to jump in. McDonald’s, for instance, has experimented with brand collaborations to create hype. One example was its limited “Cactus Plant Flea Market Happy Meal” collab. These crossovers draw long lines and dominate social feeds, showing how brand + brand = cultural moment.
The logic extends to mid-tier restaurants and food trucks. If the goal is attention, then outrageous pairings with recognizable logos are an efficient way to stand out in a saturated dining market.
Attention, omnipresence, and lifestyle fuel the trend
Why are these pairings so potent? The answer lies in three intersecting logics.
Attention economics: In the scroll economy, few things stop the thumb like the headline “Nutella Sushi.” Outrage or fascination — both are wins for attention.
Brand omnipresence: FMCG products are cultural constants. Their flavors and logos are deeply embedded in everyday life. That makes them reliable entry points for culinary play.
Lifestyle fusion: Eating branded food is about identity signaling. Just as wearing Nike or Supreme communicates something, so does ordering a Coca-Cola steak. The act says: I’m part of a playful, ironic, global culture.
This fusion of gastronomy and brandscape creates a new hybrid space: meals as lifestyle branding, restaurants as marketing theaters.
From shocking gimmick to normalized menu item
The early wave of branded food thrives on shock value. But shock is finite. Over time, consumers adapt, and what was once absurd becomes normalized. Cola ribs are now a staple at barbecues. Nutella-based desserts no longer raise eyebrows.
Critics argue that this represents the “commercialization of the kitchen.” By putting corporate brands on plates, chefs risk becoming marketers rather than artisans. There are also health concerns: iconic FMCG brands are often sugar-heavy or ultra-processed. Nutritionists caution against embedding them deeper into everyday diets.
Still, culinary history shows that many now-standard dishes began as odd novelties. Tomato ketchup was once considered an outrageous pairing with European cuisine. Sushi itself was once mocked in Western markets before becoming mainstream. It’s possible that Oreo tiramisu will follow the same trajectory: today’s meme, tomorrow’s tradition.
Near future hype and a 2030 brand-powered menu
In the near term (2–3 years), expect more tactical partnerships: fast-food chains collaborating with snack brands, pop-ups showcasing limited-edition menus, and fine-dining chefs experimenting with ironic one-off pairings. These will remain marketing-driven spectacles, designed for virality as much as for taste.
Looking further ahead to 2030, the horizon becomes more radical. We may see entire menus “powered” by brands — a full tasting course where each dish is sponsored and co-created by a different FMCG company. Imagine starting with Pepsi carpaccio, moving to a Cheetos-crusted pork belly, and ending with a Skittles-inspired dessert.
The critical question: will this evolution enhance or diminish culinary culture? For some, it represents playful innovation and cultural remixing. For others, it’s a dystopian vision of the kitchen as a billboard. Either way, it reflects a deeper truth: in the age of branded everything, even fine dining is not immune.
A future where taste and logos mix
Brand-infused cuisine sits at the intersection of gastronomy, marketing, and digital culture. What started as gimmicks on TikTok and in pop-ups is gaining traction across the spectrum — from street food to Michelin-starred menus. For Gen Z, the combination of irony, novelty, and recognizable logos makes branded food irresistible content.
But the trend carries both promise and pitfalls: new creative possibilities for chefs, but also the risk of excessive commercialization and nutritional backlash. Whether we see it as playful remixing or as corporate overreach, one thing is clear: the age of Oreo tiramisu and Cola nigiri is only beginning. Curious about other absurd-yet-real food trends? Read our deep dive on Starbucks and the business of owning fall.