When NFL coaches started holding up laminated menus to hide their play-calling, nobody expected it to become the internet's favorite football meme. But this fall, one unlikely object has completely taken over football culture: the humble laminated menu. And now, Denny's is turning this viral moment into marketing gold with a campaign that's as brilliant as it is absurd.
From Playbooks to Pop Culture: How Laminated Menus Became Football's Hottest Accessory
The phenomenon started innocuously enough. Coaches across the NFL began using laminated cards—resembling restaurant menus—to conceal their lips while calling plays from the sidelines. The practical purpose was clear: prevent opposing teams from reading their lips and stealing crucial play information.
But the internet had other ideas. The visual similarity between these coaching aids and actual restaurant menus was too perfect to ignore. Soon, memes flooded social media comparing coaches to diners perusing their options, with captions like "I'll have the touchdown special with a side of field goal."
The joke reached peak absurdity when Family Guy jumped on the trend, featuring a scene where a coach's "playbook" was literally a Denny's menu. Fans ran with the concept, showing up to games with their own laminated menus in hand, turning stadium stands into impromptu dining rooms of comedy.
Denny's Strikes Marketing Gold: The Playbook Menu Campaign
Rather than sit on the sidelines, Denny's decided to run straight into the end zone with this viral moment. Their response? The Denny's Playbook Menu—a real, laminated Denny's menu that the company is mailing to the first 100 fans who sign up online.
The campaign is genius in its simplicity. It's deadpan humor meets timely marketing, capitalizing on a cultural moment that perfectly aligns with Denny's brand identity. The company's tagline for the campaign says it all: "If America's obsessing over laminated menus, we're giving them the most iconic one out there. Please choose responsibly."
This isn't just clever marketing—it's a masterclass in how food and beverage companies can leverage viral trends to create meaningful brand engagement. By embracing the absurdity rather than fighting it, Denny's has positioned itself at the center of a conversation that spans sports, comedy, and dining culture.
Why This Campaign Matters for the Food Service Industry
The Denny's Playbook Menu campaign offers several important lessons for restaurant marketing and brand strategy. First, it demonstrates the power of real-time marketing—the ability to quickly identify and capitalize on cultural trends as they develop.
Speed and Agility in Restaurant Marketing
In today's fast-paced digital landscape, successful food and beverage companies must be prepared to pivot quickly when viral moments arise. Denny's response to the laminated menu trend wasn't just fast; it was authentic to their brand voice and values.
For restaurant owners and hospitality leaders, this campaign illustrates how menu innovation extends beyond food items to encompass every aspect of the dining experience, including marketing materials.
The Power of Self-Aware Branding
Denny's has long been known for its self-deprecating humor and willingness to embrace internet culture. This campaign perfectly exemplifies how food and beverage brands can use humor to connect with audiences while staying true to their identity.
The success lies in understanding their position in the market. Denny's knows it's not fine dining—it's comfort food, late-night eats, and approachable dining. By leaning into the joke about their laminated menus being mistaken for football playbooks, they're celebrating what makes them distinctly Denny's.
Lessons for Food and Beverage Marketing Professionals
The laminated menu phenomenon offers several key insights for marketing professionals in the food and beverage industry:
Embrace the Unexpected
Sometimes the most effective marketing campaigns come from unexpected places. No marketing team could have predicted that laminated menus would become a football meme, but Denny's was ready to capitalize when it happened.
Know Your Brand Voice
Denny's success with this campaign stems from their deep understanding of their brand personality. They've cultivated a voice that's approachable, humorous, and slightly irreverent—perfect for this type of viral moment.
Create Collectible Experiences
By limiting the Playbook Menu to just 100 recipients, Denny's created scarcity and exclusivity. This strategy transforms a simple promotional item into a collectible experience that fans will share across social media.
The Broader Impact on Food and Beverage Trends
This viral moment highlights several important trends in the food service industry:
Social Media-First Marketing
Modern restaurant marketing increasingly requires thinking about how every element of the dining experience might translate to social media. From Instagram-worthy plating to TikTok-ready concepts, successful food and beverage companies are designing experiences with shareability in mind.
Cultural Moment Marketing
The most successful food and beverage campaigns today tap into broader cultural conversations. Whether it's sustainable food brands addressing environmental concerns or restaurants creating viral flavors that capture social media attention, success comes from understanding the cultural zeitgeist.
The Evolution of Brand Partnerships
While Denny's didn't officially partner with the NFL, their campaign shows how brands can create implied associations with major cultural events and trends without formal sponsorship deals. This approach offers smaller food and beverage companies a way to participate in big cultural moments without big marketing budgets.
Digital Strategy and Implementation
For restaurant owners and food service managers looking to replicate this success, the key lies in preparation and agility. Successful viral marketing requires:
- Social Media Monitoring: Staying alert to trending topics and memes that could align with your brand
- Rapid Response Capability: Having systems in place to quickly develop and deploy marketing campaigns
- Brand Authenticity: Ensuring any viral marketing attempt stays true to your established brand voice
- Cross-Platform Execution: Coordinating campaigns across multiple social media platforms for maximum impact
The Future of Food Service Marketing
The Denny's Playbook Menu campaign signals a shift toward more nimble, culture-responsive marketing in the food and beverage industry. As social media continues to accelerate the speed of viral trends, successful restaurants and food service companies will need to develop capabilities for real-time marketing responses.
This doesn't mean every viral trend deserves a marketing response. The key is identifying moments that genuinely align with your brand values and voice. Denny's succeeded because the laminated menu joke naturally fit their established brand personality and customer base.
Measuring Success Beyond Sales
While sales metrics matter, campaigns like this succeed on multiple levels. Denny's generated massive earned media coverage, strengthened brand affinity among existing customers, and reached new audiences who might not have previously considered the restaurant.
For food and beverage professionals, this highlights the importance of measuring marketing success across multiple dimensions: brand awareness, social media engagement, earned media value, and long-term customer acquisition—not just immediate sales increases.
The laminated menu phenomenon proves that in today's marketing landscape, the most unexpected moments can become the biggest opportunities. By staying alert to cultural trends, understanding their brand voice, and being ready to act quickly, Denny's turned a football meme into marketing gold.
For restaurant owners, hospitality leaders, and food service managers, the lesson is clear: success in modern marketing requires agility, authenticity, and the courage to embrace the unexpected. Sometimes the best marketing campaigns aren't planned months in advance—they're born from staying connected to culture and being ready to run with the perfect moment when it arrives.
What viral trends are brewing in your market? Are you ready to capitalize when your moment arrives?
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral. Politz is also the founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
