My Instagram profile bio proudly says “Pickle fan club”; the main image a picture of me with a pickle. Dill, bread and butter, spicy, spears, chips, gherkins, whole, halves, fermented, vinegar, I love every iteration of pickle. Pickle-flavored snacks from my childhood were mostly limited to Lay’s dill pickle potato chips and dill pickle Pringles, with a few odds and ends or stale limited edition snacks that could be found at a dusty little novelty store on vacation. I remember feeling a void in the pickle market. It’s a shame I was too busy going to middle school and doing my best put on deodorant everyday to start a pickle empire.
As for the start of the current pickle marketing blitz, I believe it started in 2017 when Rick and Morty ran an episode called “Pickle Rick”. Rick becomes a zany little pickle guy, exclaiming “I turned myself into a pickle, Morty!” within one minute of episode start. You know the one. The pickle revolution started then and there; the seeds were planted deep within the minds of all college-aged stoners. The episode spawned memes, and those memes empowered pickle freaks to live their truth. The pieces were falling into place.
Fast-forward to 2020. Those stoners, previously influenced and consumed by Pickle Rick, had started leaving college and/or becoming productive-ish members of society by entering the job market. The covid lockdowns also started around this time, and the grocery store quickly became the week’s main outing for many people. Marketing teams quickly put their energy and time into grocery marketing. Collaborations, new flavors, and old favorites all became more attention grabbing. After years of dormancy, those seeds sewn in 2017 were flooded with fertilizer in the form of dill, salt, and vinegar. Dill pickle was the hottest flavor in the snack aisle; countless types of chips, dips, popcorn, pretzels, nuts, jerky, and more popped up. It’s probably fairly obvious that I was a fan of the great pickle blitz. I felt more understood and slightly less depressed about the monotony of post-college life when it all began. There was always a new and exciting pickle-flavored thing to snack on, and life was better because of it.
Pickles remain hot, hot, hot to this day, 5+ years later. Pickle flavoring is still being put in and on countless new foods. The actual pickle section and its surplus would make a Victorian family weep. This level of food ubiquity and marketing dominance hasn’t been seen since the great bacon renaissance of the early 2010’s. Remember bacon belts? Bacon memes and Epic Meal Time? Bacon in places it shouldn’t be, yet still working? Bacon milkshakes, bacon cupcakes, bacon candy. The candy sucked, but you get the point. We are seeing that pattern repeat itself with pickles, and Sonic Drive-In is once again leading the charge in taking this marketing indulgence a bit too far.
In 2024, Sonic started offering pickles as a drink add-in after pickles and Dr. Pepper became a noticeable trend on TikTok. Not to be outdone, Grillo’s marketing czars (who are no strangers to wild crossovers) struck a deal with the drive-in, with Grillo’s/Sonic collaboration items appearing on menus across the country in 2025. These crossover products actually inspired my article, because I think the marketing has gone just a bit too far. Despite liking pickles and being willing to try the burger, I can’t bring myself to order one out of respect for pickles and what they stand for. Pickles are the highlight of many a great sandwich, but they are most effective as a single voice within a greater choir of ingredients for a reason. They sing beautifully with others. I’m no stranger to a shot of pickle juice or a pickle on its own, but I just think a “Picklerita slush with pickle juice flavor bubble” is just too much.
I hate to look a pickled gift horse in the mouth, but I believe there is a lesson to be learned here. Marketing departments will always try to tap into what’s hot and take it a few steps too far. The vinegar-soaked opulence of the Grillos/Sonic Drive-In collaboration is a cautionary tale. Their extravagance most likely will not be an objective financial failure. I’m sure many people will enjoy these specials, but I think Sonic has alienated the true pickle lover; the people who respect the humble pickled cucumber, knowing it can be celebrated without being turned into a caricature.
If we take a deeper look at bacon and pickles, it’s no surprise they have been the most recent examples of food hypermarketing. Bacon is salty and fatty. Pickles are acidic and malleable to flavorings. Fat, salt, and acid are all key components to building a balanced flavor profile. That means that bacon and pickles are basic enough to be easily integrated into existing products and flavors, yet interesting enough to stand on their own. I’m sure this isn’t the last time I will watch a food I love become a husk of its true self because of marketing weirdos and influencers, but I doubt the next example will hit home quite like the pickle.