• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 30, 2025

Ever do your nails and then dive straight into a bucket of wings? Maybe not, but nail polish brand OPI is teaming up with Wingstop to encourage people to take the Snackin:60 challenge: Can you reach for Wingstop wings 60 seconds after painting your nails -- and stay smudge-free?

The effort serves as the launchpad for OPI RapiDry, with one coat drying in 60 seconds and two coats providing five days of wear. With a promise to end “smudgstration,” the debut arrives as young consumers keep deepening their relationship with nail color, thanks to Gen Z’s passion for self-expression, says Lori Pantel, CMO of Wella Co., which owns OPI.

Polish has become increasingly popular with young men, for example, and influencers are sporting elaborate nail fashions that are shaking up red carpet expectations. “They want to change their nail color as often as they change their underwear, creating one look for a Friday night date and another for Saturday,” she tells Marketing Daily.

Fans can order their free OPI X Wingstop kits, which include two shades of the new product, a timer and a card to Wingstop, and get them in time for the Super Bowl.

Fashion influencer Ashtin Earle stars in the social media effort.

“The promise of this new product is a smudge-proof manicure in 60 seconds,” Pantel says. “We wanted to introduce it in a way that highlights that point of difference using a cultural insight. And that’s knowing that Gen Z -- and all of us, really -- have no patience. The most frustrating part of getting your nails done is that wait time, and when you smudge or chip it, that’s aggravating.”

And while snacking might not seem like the most obvious pairing, she says nail polish and noshing share a meaningful Gen Z connection: They’re both forms of passionate self-expression.

TikTok and Instagram are full of food content, and people are keenly interested in what their friends are eating. “When we learned Wingstop is one of Gen Z’s 10 most beloved brands, we knew this could be a relevant partnership. This is a very easy way to get our message across.”

The football connection adds another layer of buzz. “You can't get away from Super Bowl chatter right now. Women are watching football more, not just because of Taylor Swift. When marketers find a way to intersect a brand in a cultural conversation like football with a favorite brand like Wingstop, that can be an effective vehicle to drive relevancy and awareness.”

She also hopes the effort hits Gen Z as both unexpected and playful. “You would never imagine a beauty brand partnering with Wingstop. But because this partnership hits an important trend that people are already enjoying -- eating wings -- it reinforces our single point of difference.”