• by Teresa Buyikian , Yesterday

Forget Friday. Happy Thursday refreshers want Gen Z to consider having a drink on Thursday instead.

The 4.4% ABV Happy Thursday and its agency Droga5 collaborated with emerging pop artists Inji and music video director Hannah Lux Davis on the new summer campaign. The result is a trippy earworm-inducing track and accompanying video that are equal parts ‘90s rave style with a dose of modern electronic dance music aimed straight at Gen Z.

The song’s lyrics highlight the low-alcohol, non-carbonated refresher’s attributes such as fruit-forward flavors and no bubbles. The spot, seen here, opens on an Atari-esque video game menu, scrolling through the phrases and flavors of Happy Thursday and landing on the question “So what is a Happy Thursday though?” which appears as a giant neon green super. As the song goes into describing how Gen Z is sick of waiting till Friday to party, the screen bursts with an oversaturation of neon colors, Happy Thursday cans and retro fonts spell out the song’s lyrics like “Spiked refresher guilty pleasure” and “So fresh so fun no trouble…”

The tagline, “Why Wait for Friday?” also appears on online ad executions. The song and video run across Happy Thursday’s social and digital channels, including Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, where consumers can also view behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the song and video with INJI.

Happy Thursday is available in Black Cherry, Pineapple Starfruit, Strawberry, Mango Passionfruit and Raspberry Dragonfruit flavors at retailers nationwide.

The brand said non-carbonated Happy Thursday was created as a response to the finding that “bloating that may come from carbonation is considered a top barrier for legal drinking age Gen Z  21-to 26-year-old category drinkers.”