NEW ORLEANS – Just in time for the heat of summer, Smoothie King has announced the return of its X-Treme Watermelon smoothie and a new X-Treme Watermelon Lemonade smoothie. What’s more, the company has co-authored a steamy new romance novel with ChatGPT entitled “A Summer Fling to the X-Treme” to coincide with the smoothie releases. The 250-page novel features a series of hidden codes nestled within its pages, and the first 300 readers to crack the codes and download the app will win a free 20-ounce smoothie.
“To celebrate the return of our X-Treme Watermelon smoothie and launch of our new X-Treme Watermelon Lemonade smoothie, we wanted to have some fun and really take this product’s Summer Fling campaign to the next level,” says Marianne Radley, chief marketing officer of Smoothie King. “These smoothies are bright, refreshing and bold in flavor, so the campaign activation needed to align. Discussions around AI and ChatGPT have been a mainstay in today’s culture conversations, so we wanted to playfully insert ourselves into those conversations—and this seemed like a great way to do it. Our ChatGPT-written summer romance novel is a creative and quirky way for Smoothie King to utilize modern AI technologies to captivate consumers and highlight these menu items in a way that no other brand has. Given the popularity of summertime romance novels and buzz around ChatGPT, we elected to lean into a hot trend to weave in our X-Treme Summer Campaign.”
“A Summer Fling to the X-Treme” is a passionate love story that follows main character Millie, a young woman who thought it was going to be another typical summer spent with her will-they-won’t-they best friend, Samson, in Simpleville. However, everything changes when a handsome time-traveling stranger by the name of Walter Melone – a pun on the word “watermelon” – arrives in town with a quest to save the world one watermelon smoothie at a time.
The X-Treme Watermelon smoothie includes a watermelon juice blend, strawberries, coconut water and dairy whey blend, while the new X-Treme Watermelon Lemonade smoothie includes a watermelon juice blend, strawberries, white grape lemon juice blend and turbinado.
The smoothies are available through August 28 (or while supplies last), and prices will vary by location. They can be purchased at one of the 18 locations throughout New Orleans (or 61 locations throughout the New Orleans area) or on the Smoothie King app. Meanwhile, the free novel (a limited run of 300 paperback copies), is available at asummerflingtothextreme.com.