Cava Cashes In on Labubu Craze With Blind Box Pita Plushies

Cava is launching its first meal field—with a squishy good friend inside.

For a restricted time, the Mediterranean-inspired quick informal chain will supply the first-of-its-kind Sizzling Harissa Meal, full with its Harissa Avocado Bowl, Sizzling Harissa Pita Chips … and a pita chip plushie.

Impressed by the craze round Pop Mart’s fuzzy Labubu monsters, every meal will embody considered one of 4 plushie members of a pita chip household. Customers gained’t know which plushie is of their meal till they open it, leaning into the “blind field” technique credited with sparking the Labubu pattern. 

“We noticed the rise of Labubu and felt that we may very well be part of the dialog in a approach that was distinctive and didn’t really feel overly gimmicky,” Andy Rebhun, chief advertising and expertise officer at Cava, instructed ADWEEK. 

The meal might be obtainable nationwide, in eating places solely, and the plushies might be obtainable on a “very limited-run.” Cava declined to share an actual timeframe.

The fast-casual chain partnered with creator Thaddeus Coats—also called Hippy Potter—to design the plushies. 

The gathering of pita chips is constructed round “Peter Chip,” a personality Cava debuted on social media in March for Nationwide Pita Chip Day. The unique Peter Chip was a Cava pita chip with googly eyes and a minimize out smile.

Coats’ model of Peter Chip has massive cartoon eyes, palms, and ft. He additionally designed three different plushies primarily based on previous, current, and future Cava pita chip flavors. There’s “Garlic Gus,” Peter’s gregarious uncle and the embodiment of final October’s Garlic Ranch Pita Chip; “Jimmy Harissa,” Peter’s spicy finest bud representing Sizzling Harissa Pita Chips; and “Candy Sammy,” Peter’s candy sister teasing a forthcoming taste, mentioned Rebhun. 

Coats leaned into the nostalgia and tangibility of collector’s objects when he designed the plushies. Like Labubus, Cava’s pita chip plushies come on a key ring. 

“Everyone seems to be obsessive about gathering issues proper now, and with a key ring, you’ll be able to grasp it in your bag. It’s a cool method to present you’re part of one thing,” mentioned Coats. 

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