快餐食品频出新噱头

With Burger King’s new ad featuring a hamburger looks like a *burrito, or Pepsi’s revival of its eery-looking clear cola, it seems that fast-food *slingers are spending more time creating attention-grabbing *concoctions in their labs rather than fresh ideas in the kitchen.

汉堡王在新广告中推出了一款长得像墨西哥卷饼的汉堡，而百事可乐则重新推出了看着很诡异的透明可乐。看起来，快餐食品商们似乎将更多的时间花在了在实验室里研究夺人眼球的食物混搭组合上，而不是在厨房里发掘新点子。

In fact, bizarre combinations of otherwise familiar foods are coming in faster than people can get through them.

事实上，在人们能够接受这种常见食物的怪异组合前，它们往往已经纷至沓来。

With the “Whopperito” – Tex-Mex hamburger meat, *smothered in cheese and wrapped in a flour *tortilla – Burger King hopes to attract diners who find the Dr Frankenstein-like creation appealing.

通过推出Whopperito —— 将德克萨斯-墨西哥风味汉堡肉淋上芝士，再卷入墨西哥薄馅饼——汉堡王希望能够吸引那些喜欢科学怪人式餐品的顾客。

“It’s just to get peoples’ attention to come in to the restaurants,” says Alex Macedo, president of Burger King North America. While Macedo says sales see a boost from limited edition menu options, they’re “also important for keeping the brand relevant.”

“这只是希望能够引起人们注意，令他们光顾餐厅，”汉堡王北美公司总裁亚历克斯•马赛多说道。马赛多称限量版菜单的推出让销售额不断上涨，而这也对他们“保持品牌的曝光度十分重要”。

Not to be left behind, Pepsi Co is bringing back a *cult favorite from its past, Crystal Pepsi – an unusual *elixir of clear cola that has the same taste as the familiar fizzy brown stuff but which appears “crystal” clear. The throwback returns to stores in the US this month for a limited run. Pepsi even recently hosted a free ’90s-themed concert in Manhattan to re-launch the soft drink which disappeared from shelves in 1994 following poor sales.

百事可乐公司也不甘人后，带着一款过去深受大众喜爱的潮流饮料——水晶可乐(一款非同寻常的透明可乐饮料)强势回归。水晶可乐和我们所熟悉的棕色汽水味道无异，但它却是透明无色的。这款怀旧饮料于本月在美国限量上市。由于先前销量不佳，水晶可乐于1994年下架。而近期为了庆祝这款碳酸饮料重新上市，百事可乐甚至还在曼哈顿举办了一场免费的90年代主题演唱会。

With social media sharing and “going viral” now the modern kings of marketing, junk food sellers are facing pressure to *churn out social media-friendly – and sometimes borderline bizarre – products in order to stay in the eyes of their audience.

由于社交媒体即时分享和快速扩散的特性，为了能够长期留在公众视线中，现代的市场营销之王——垃圾食品商们需要大量生产便于社交媒体传播，有时甚至相当诡异的产品。

“They want people tweeting things out, they want people taking pictures of their plate, because there’s more competition out there,” says Dan Rene, senior vice president at US-based strategic communications firm Levick.

“他们希望人们能为自己的产品发推，给食物拍照，而这样的竞争也日益激烈，”总部位于美国的策略传播公司莱维克的副总裁，丹•雷内表示。

Trends are also moving at a faster pace than they used to, forcing companies to constantly come up with unconventional ideas in order to out-do one another.

和过去相比，潮流趋势变化得更快了，企业也不得不时常推陈出新，来盖过对手的风头。

“Customers get bored very, very quickly,” says Neil Saunders, CEO of retail research firm Conlumino in the US. “You have to work increasingly hard to get the message across.”

“顾客们很容易就觉得无聊了，”美国零售业调查公司Conlumino 的首席执行官，尼尔•桑德斯说道。“你需要十分努力工作，才能将信息传播开来。”

Sometimes that means *reanimating products of *yesteryear to lure loyal fans who may be *enticed to spend their hard earned cash just to get a bite or sip of *nostalgia.

有时候，这也意味着重新推出过去的产品，从而吸引一些忠实顾客，用血汗钱为怀旧情怀买单。

In 2010, KFC came out with the Double Down, a sandwich made with two boneless chicken *fillets in lieu of the bread. It sparked so much intrigue that the chain brought it back for a limited time in 2014.

2010年，肯德基推出了一款用两片无骨鸡柳代替面包而制成的三明治Double Down。这款产品引起了巨大反响，于是在2014年，肯德基将其作为限定产品重新上市。

Burger King also did something similar. Its chicken fries – essentially *strips of chicken made to look like french fries – came to the market for a limited time in 2005, with the fast food giant deciding to give them a temporary resurgence in 2014. But following high sales of the chicken-based creation upon its temporary re-release, the company decided to upgrade it to a permanent fixture on the menu.

汉堡王也做过一些类似的活动。它的鸡肉薯条——本质上就是长得像薯条的鸡肉条——于2005年作为限量产品上市。2014年，这个快餐业巨头决定暂时让其重返市场。但由于这款鸡肉产品在限量供应期的火爆销售额，汉堡王后来决定将它升级为长期供应餐品。

“It drove traffic,” says Macedo. “It brought in people that otherwise weren’t coming to. That’s the biggest success.”

“这带来了更多客流，”马赛多表示。“它吸引了一些本不会光顾的客人。这便是最大的成功。”