Once the New Orleans Pelicans landed the number one pick in this year’s NBA Lottery, it was a foregone conclusion that was where can’t miss college phenom Zion Williamson would end up.
Fast forward to NBA Draft Day on June 20th — Popeyes, the world’s largest quick-service chicken restaurant, debuted a one-day-only limited-edition 82-inch Wingspan Box. Even though at this point Williamson was not selected by the Pelicans just yet, Popeyes had a genius marketing idea to design a box as wide as the wingspan of 18-year-old Zion Williamson who stands at 6’7’’ tall.
The Wingspan Box includes 77 boneless wings, 11 biscuits, and 11 servings of french fries, which is enough food to feed your entire draft party and still have enough leftovers for lunch the day after. Unfortunately, this is only available for a limited time at the Popeyes location on Canal Street in New Orleans.
Fortunately, for Pelicans fans and Popeyes, the New Orleans franchise did end up selecting Zion Williamson as their first-round pick. To most NBA fans, this came as no surprise. There was no chance they were going to move on from selecting Williamson, who is being described as a generational type player given his skillset and build.
However, it would have been interesting to see how the marketing team at Popeyes would have responded if the Pelicans did in fact change their pick on draft day. Would there have been any interest in the 82-inch Wingspan Boxes? Would Popeyes have lost money with their hasty marketing tactic?
As we (impatiently) wait for the NBA to be back in October, we can all expect to hear more about Zion, the madness of free agency, and bigger and better marketing in the meantime.