Why Do Food Brands Keep Creating New Jobs For Customers?

Back in March – my god, that’s gone in the blink of an eye – I wrote about Wendy’s hiring a Chief Tasting Officer. This six-figure position was (and is) a very real gambit from the chain: The idea was that someone would be employed for a year to taste-test its food, create content in association with the restaurant, and generally act as a brand ambassador. Not bad for $100,000 a year, right?

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Well, it seems that other brands caught notice – because another job has popped up with a different, similarly massive company, and the position sounds even more relaxed. Let’s talk about…why. 

Snickers Chief Online Chill Officer

Yesterday, Snickers announced that it was on the hunt for its first-ever “Chief Online Chill Officer,” a position that sees the winning applicant hunt down content for the brand. In its press release, Snickers described the position as “a paid, two-week mini-gig where one fan will earn an unofficial C-sweet title to help bring more chill, fun and a little deliciousness to people’s feeds.” A little digging on the official application website reveals that this position comes with a payment of $6,500. For two weeks’ work? Hey, I’m sold. 

Essentially, the role of Snickers’ Chief Online Chill Officer is, like the Wendy’s position above, to make content and act as a kind of real-person online presence for the brand, responding to comments and putting the Snickers name front and center. And…you guessed it…it’s all to promote a Snickers product, specifically Snickers Ice Cream Minis and the flavors that the brand released earlier this year (we tried them, incidentally, and one really stood out). 

Interested in being a Snickers COCO, as we would imagine it’s being abbreviated to? You can apply until August 4. 

And…Why Is This All Happening?

In a word, promotion. Brands are increasingly trying to find ways to promote their products and services in ways that feel innovative, fresh, and above all, authentic – and employing someone who doesn’t feel overly corporate or spokesperson-y to act as a mouthpiece for them is a canny move (and it also makes news, hence this article being written). There’s a similar logic behind lookalike competitions, which brands (like Wendy’s) have also jumped on this year: Something spearheaded by a massive company, but which involves real people, creating a bridge between product and customer. Or something like that, anyway. Either way, maybe we’ll all be employed by mega-brands in content-creating roles before too long.