Brand · Digital · Social
He's a Brats
An April Fool's push with teeth. A fake press release, a real reveal in the fine print. 1.2M reach from 6,182 followers, in three days, on zero paid.
S tate Street Brats is a Badger Nation landmark. Campus bar since 1989, bratwursts, Spotted Cow, game-day institution 1. The owners wanted another April Fool's push for 2026. Something that would not disappear into the noise of fake-product bits every brand ships on April 1st. The request was a one-line text, "make something funny."
Put Madison in the group chat, wake up Badger alumni scattered across the country, and do it at zero media spend. The charge in one sentence: build a bit credible enough to land and ridiculous enough to give itself up.
Build it credible. Reveal it in the fine print.
Find the counterpoint
Find the plausible counterpoint to State Street Brats. Red brats and bottomless Bloodys on one side; frosted tips and Donkey Sauce on the other.
Write the premise
A full press release on the Brats' website in real PR voice. "Sixteen months of extensive negotiations." A quoted statement from current ownership about "passing the torch." A backstory tracing to a 2019 meeting that never happened. Plausible enough to land.
Stage the evidence
Three composed photos, shot to look pulled from a local photographer's camera roll. Fieri signing paperwork, Fieri with Bucky Badger, Fieri accepting a liquor license.
Carry the bit
Social copy across Instagram and Facebook. Every post carrying the premise without breaking it so the comments could get to work.
Hide the reveal
Four paragraphs of mock-legalese at the bottom of the release. The Gullible Party, Donkey Sauce, flame-decaled uniforms, the fifty-mile commercial-dairy-farm radius. The disclaimer is the actual joke. Readers find it themselves.
Campaign Media
A landmark outran its own follower base.
"If you want to take your business to the next level, there is no one else I would want to work with."
Capabilities
What this chapter exercises.
Campaigns that sound real
earn their reveal.
Spring 2026 slate. A handful of engagements open. If you have an audience that will do the distribution once they are in on the bit, we should talk.