What Is This?

What is this?

Like, honestly, what is going on here?

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The other day, I was using the Internet, as many of us tend to do, when I came across an ad for Punk Bunny Coffee’s new Good Morning U.S.A. Limited Edition Medium Roast. The sight of this ad hit me like a freight train. After the initial shock wore off, I remembered way too quickly what Punk Bunny Coffee was. Punk Bunny Coffee is the java venture from Bay Area punk uncles Green Day. Remember when they sold a branded Keurig to promote the 20th anniversary of American Idiot? I do, at least.

Next it dawned on me that this had something to do with Seth MacFarlane’s other other show1 American Dad!, taking its name from the show’s theme song. What I saw on the packaging was an image of Stan Smith, CIA Agent, skanking with a Punk Bunny-branded mug in hand and bunny ears on his head while he shoved his pet (?) alien Roger, toting a spray paint can out of the way. But this doesn’t clarify anything to me.

Are Green Day particularly big fans of American Dad!? They’re noted Simpsons fans, so I guess they could be into other Fox adult animations. But, if they want to get on the MacFarlane IP train, a Peter Griffin blend seems like a better fit. Why is Stan the spokesperson for Punk Bunny Coffee? I realize now that he isn’t skanking, but he is wearing something close to the American Idiot iconography, red tie on black formal wear. But no, this is more of a Gerard Way Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge-type fit, because he’s wearing a jacket! Billie Joe never wore a jacket! They couldn’t even get that right?

Why is Stan the one eagerly swilling Green Day coffee? His whole shtick is that he’s a super-conservative CIA agent. I vaguely remember an episode where he got really into My Morning Jacket, but that’s far from a whole-hearted embrace of pop-punk. Is the irony here not lost on Billie Joe and co? Or is it a meta-commentary on the death of the original spirit of punk rock at the hands of rank consumerism? And again, why does this have to be American Dad!-branded?

Is there supposed to be some sort of American Dad Idiot thing going on here?

I shouldn’t get too incensed with the branding. I’m still thrown by the TBS logo floating in the middle of the packaging (I thought the show was still on Fox!), but let’s try to judge the coffee by its own merits. According to the Punk Bunny Coffee website,

“We've teamed up with the epic team over at TBS's "American Dad!" to create a shining salute to the American race! Featuring a full-body roast with notes of citrus peel and chocolate milk. It'll get you up and singing Gooooooood Morning, U.S.A. every morning.”

Is that supposed to make me want to drink this coffee? Citrus peel and chocolate milk? Together? Pick a lane, dudes! I’m not going to devote time to the use of the term “epic”, but it gives a clue into what era this whole project is living in.

The above description is accompanied by a hastily made video where we hear a bar of “Basket Case”, only to be interrupted by the in-house TBS narrator telling us to buy the coffee and watch American Dad!, all over a clip of the show where the Punk Bunny’s head is edited into a scene where Stan is a barista for some reason. A rush job!

I don’t want it to seem like I’m judging Billie, Mike, or Tre here, or even Seth MacFarlane and his team. Everyone needs a side hustle, everyone needs to pull in a little extra scratch.

Yet I was so blindsided, so shocked to my core by what’s going on here, that I kind of have to hold the whole thing against people whose art I have thoroughly enjoyed.

It just feels so careless. But that seems to be what happens when you’ve been famous for nearly 30 (MacFarlane) or 40 (in Green Day’s case) years. Green Day, who got their start performing at an autonomously run punk club in Berkeley, has absolutely no qualms about running a coffee company that has a partnership with 7-Eleven, and Seth MacFarlane probably doesn’t care all that much about the specifics of what character does what thing with the Green Day branding.

There’s really no such thing as selling out anymore in 2024, but I urge artists who are monetizing their legacy to do it well. Don’t do it sloppily. Take some time to consider if all the pieces fit together before you approve the pitch deck. Will I ever drink this coffee? Definitely not. Am I going to remember Punk Bunny Coffee’s Good Morning U.S.A. Limited Edition Medium Roast in three weeks? Probably not. But the sheer incongruity of the whole thing jolted me. So now you all know about it too.