漢堡王在新廣告中推出一款墨西哥捲餅漢堡

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.

漢堡王在新廣告中推出了一款長得像墨西哥捲餅的漢堡，而百事可樂則重新推出了看着很詭異的透明可樂。看起來，快餐食品商們似乎將更多的時間花在了在實驗室裏研究奪人眼球的食物混搭組合上，而不是在廚房裏發掘新點子。

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

事實上，在人們能夠接受這種常見食物的怪異組合前，它們往往已經紛至沓來。

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.

通過推出Whopperito —— 將德克薩斯-墨西哥風味漢堡肉淋上芝士，再捲入墨西哥薄餡餅——漢堡王希望能夠吸引那些喜歡科學怪人式餐品的顧客。

It’s just to get peoples’ attention to come in to the restaurants, says Alex Macedo, president of Burger King North America.

這只是希望能夠引起人們注意，令他們光顧餐廳，漢堡王北美公司總裁亞歷克斯•馬賽多說道。

While Macedo says sales see a boost from limited edition menu options, they’re also important for keeping the brand relevant.

馬賽多稱限量版菜單的推出讓銷售額不斷上漲，而這也對他們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.

百事可樂公司也不甘人後，帶着一款過去深受大衆喜愛的潮流飲料——水晶可樂（一款非同尋常的透明可樂飲料）強勢迴歸。

The throwback returns to stores in the US this month for a limited run.

水晶可樂和我們所熟悉的棕色汽水味道無異，但它卻是透明無色的。

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.

這款懷舊飲料於本月在美國限量上市。由於先前銷量不佳，水晶可樂於1994年下架。而近期爲了慶祝這款碳酸飲料重新上市，百事可樂甚至還在曼哈頓舉辦了一場免費的90年代主題演唱會。

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.

由於社交媒體即時分享和快速擴散的特性，爲了能夠長期留在公衆視線中，現代的市場營銷之王——垃圾食品商們需要大量生產便於社交媒體傳播，有時甚至相當詭異的產品。

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.

他們希望人們能爲自己的產品發推，給食物拍照，而這樣的競爭也日益激烈，總部位於美國的策略傳播公司萊維克的副總裁，丹•雷內表示。

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.

和過去相比，潮流趨勢變化得更快了，企業也不得不時常推陳出新，來蓋過對手的風頭。

Customers get bored very, very quickly, says Neil Saunders, CEO of retail research firm Conlumino in the US.

顧客們很容易就覺得無聊了，美國零售業調查公司Conlumino 的首席執行官，尼爾•桑德斯說道。

You have to work increasingly hard to get the message across.

你需要十分努力工作，才能將信息傳播開來。

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.

有時候，這也意味着重新推出過去的產品，從而吸引一些忠實顧客，用血汗錢爲懷舊情懷買單。

In 2010, KFC came out with the Double Down, a sandwich made with two boneless chicken fillets in lieu of the bread.

2010年，肯德基推出了一款用兩片無骨雞柳代替麪包而製成的三明治Double Down。

It sparked so much intrigue that the chain brought it back for a limited time in 2014.

這款產品引起了巨大反響，於是在2014年，肯德基將其作爲限定產品重新上市。

Burger King also did something similar.

漢堡王也做過一些類似的活動。

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.

它的雞肉薯條——本質上就是長得像薯條的雞肉條——於2005年作爲限量產品上市。2014年，這個快餐業巨頭決定暫時讓其重返市場。

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.

但由於這款雞肉產品在限量供應期的火爆銷售額，漢堡王后來決定將它升級爲長期供應餐品。

It drove traffic, says Macedo.

這帶來了更多客流，馬賽多表示。

It brought in people that otherwise weren’t coming to.

它吸引了一些本不會光顧的客人。

That’s the biggest success.

這便是最大的成功。