Sour Patch Kids Sues Ryan Trahan's Joyride
Plus: Perplexity Computer comes for ecom, Rowdy Chips and Kraft's cinnamon roll mac
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Sour Patch Kids is suing a YouTuber's candy brand, and the complaint leans on his own viral video. Plus Perplexity wants to run your store, Peter Rahal goes after Cool Ranch, and Hot or Not takes on cinnamon roll mac and peptide popsicles.
GUEST HOST NATE LAGOS BottomsUp Copy
12:30 CT GRANT ZANINI CMO, Common Thread Collective
Mondelēz, the maker of Oreo, Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids, has sued Joyride, the candy brand where YouTuber Ryan Trahan is Chief Creative Officer. Per the complaint, Joyride's gummies never took off until Trahan posted a viral "Strategy to Surpass Sour Patch Kids" video. In 2025, the brand relaunched as Sour Smacks, with a kid-shaped mascot, yellow-and-green packaging and kid-shaped candy, and raised $30M at a roughly $100M valuation that same month.
Mondelēz accuses Joyride of "joyriding" on its brand and says it asked Joyride to stop repeatedly. Ariel Givner's takeaway for creator brands: roasting the market leader is great marketing, but looking like it is a trade dress claim, "and your own viral videos become Exhibit A."
Perplexity says Computer "can automate every part of an e-commerce business," running Meta ads, Klaviyo email and Shopify stores from one agent. The pitch covers competitor research, ad creative, daily budget moves, Shopify landing pages and Klaviyo flows. Get Maine Lobster's CEO credits it with a 3x lift in Meta revenue and a 63% higher ROAS. Agencies, start sweating.
RXBAR co-founder Peter Rahal just launched rowdysnacks.com. Andrea calls Rowdy Medici's first savory snack and says the tangy ranch is the closest thing yet to reverse-engineering Doritos Cool Ranch, so all eyes are on how Frito-Lay responds. A founder who built a $600M bar brand on a short ingredient list is now taking that playbook to the chip aisle.
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It's real, and it's a limited-time Walmart exclusive. Kraft is giving the blue box a sweet cinnamon roll twist, and Snackolator's post on it passed 283K views, with plenty of people asking how it could taste good. Hot or not?
Nate Rosen posted a freezer stacked with Bola protein and peptide popsicles, captioned "Babe, you've barely touched your protein and peptide popsicle." Wellness CPG has officially reached the freezer aisle.
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