SALT LAKE CITY — In a product launch that will be taught in business schools as a warning, a national burger chain this week unveiled its “revolutionary Pink Fry Dip” — a proprietary blend of ketchup and mayonnaise — to a Utah focus group, apparently unaware that it was presenting the state drink of Utah to the people of Utah.
“He said ‘we combined two condiments,’ and the room went completely silent,” said one attendee. “Not angry silent. Reverent silent. Like watching a toddler proudly present you with a picture of your own house.”
Executives described eighteen months of research and development, including “over 200 iterations,” to arrive at a ratio Utah children are trusted to eyeball unsupervised. The company has applied for a trademark on the concept of the color pink, applied to sauce.
Utahns, for their part, responded with the patience of a people who have explained fry sauce to transplants since approximately the Johnson administration. “They kept saying ‘dip,’ like it was a fun new behavior,” said a Provo attendee who asked to remain anonymous because her in-laws work in food service back east. “Sir. We have been dipping. There are locations here that will put it in a cup with a lid, for the car. This is not a launch. This is a homecoming you weren’t invited to organize.”
The chain has since revised its rollout plan, replacing “introducing Utah to Pink Fry Dip” with “also offering sauce,” and quietly instructing regional managers that the correct response to a Utahn explaining fry sauce history is to nod, take notes, and under no circumstances say the word “aioli.”
At press time, the company’s innovation team had reportedly moved on to its next breakthrough: a large soda, mixed with flavored syrups and cream, which it plans to test in the Utah market “if the dip goes well.”
Photo: Ryan Snyder, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons