Mukbang Straw: Sprite built a dual-channel ASMR straw that makes every sip louder

Sprite has created a limited-edition stainless-steel straw designed to amplify the sound of drinking the carbonated beverage.

Called the “Mukbang Straw,” the dual-channel device was developed for mukbang and ASMR creators as part of Sprite Canada’s “Hurts Real Good” platform. It makes each fizzy sip louder, turning the moment of drinking Sprite after eating spicy food into an acoustic performance.

Created by WPP Open X, led by VML Canada, the project gives content creators a physical tool that places Sprite inside the sounds, reactions and close-up visuals associated with online food videos.

The campaign starts with a spicy-food behaviour

Mukbang videos usually feature creators eating large meals while speaking to viewers or drawing attention to the textures and sounds of the food. ASMR content pushes those details further by using sensitive microphones to capture chewing, crunching, pouring and sipping.

Spicy-food challenges add another layer of entertainment. Viewers watch creators experience the heat while waiting for visible reactions such as sweating, coughing or reaching for a cold drink.

Sprite’s campaign enters this established behaviour by focusing on the sound made after the spicy bite.

The “Hurts Real Good” platform presents spicy food and an ice-cold Sprite as an intense sensory pairing. The food creates heat, while the cold, carbonated drink brings flavour, fizz and refreshment into the moment.

Rather than simply placing a Sprite bottle beside the meal, the Mukbang Straw makes the product part of the content’s most important feature: its sound.

A dual-channel design turns sipping into ASMR

The Mukbang Straw is custom-built from stainless steel and contains two channels designed to increase airflow and amplify sipping sounds.

As Sprite travels through the straw, the design makes the carbonation and movement of the drink easier for microphones to capture. Every gulp becomes louder, fizzier and more dramatic.

Its polished metal construction also gives it the appearance of a creator tool rather than an ordinary disposable straw. It can sit naturally alongside microphones, studio lights and close-up food setups used in professional mukbang production.

The design does not attempt to solve a practical drinking problem. Its purpose is expressive. It exaggerates a familiar action so that Sprite becomes more noticeable within a video.

VML Canada Executive Creative Director Mélissa Charland described the idea as a way to amplify Sprite after the drink had already amplified the spicy-food experience.

Sprite gives creators something made for their format

Creator campaigns often begin with a product and ask influencers to build content around it. Sprite reverses that relationship by developing an object specifically for the way mukbang and ASMR creators work.

The straw supports their existing visual and audio language. It does not require them to leave their usual environment or explain an unrelated brand message. They can continue preparing spicy dishes, filming reactions and capturing detailed food sounds, with the straw adding a new moment to the sequence.

That makes the product both a media object and a content prompt.

Creators can compare ordinary drinking sounds with the amplified version, challenge one another to try hotter food or use the straw to build anticipation around the first cold sip.

The campaign therefore gives influencers a repeatable action rather than a fixed script.

Takis adds another layer of heat

Sprite partnered with Takis for the Canadian activation, connecting the drink with a snack already associated with intense spice.

Creator videos feature spicy dishes, Sprite and bags of Takis. This creates a clear narrative progression: the creator takes on the heat, reacts to it and then reaches for Sprite through the amplified straw.

The combination gives both brands a natural role. Takis provides the challenge, while Sprite becomes the highly audible response.

It also allows the campaign to participate in existing spicy-snack culture rather than attempting to manufacture a new food trend.

According to Jacques Blanchet, Integrated Marketing Director for Coca-Cola Canada, spicy food is becoming increasingly popular among younger Canadians. The brand wanted to draw attention to Sprite’s place alongside those flavours through an idea connected to the mukbang community.

The straw launches through a creator challenge

“Hurts Real Good” launched in Canada on August 6, 2026, with the creator phase beginning on August 28.

The bilingual campaign is running across the country in English and French. It begins with two hero mukbang influencers, followed by a broader group of creators participating in the Sprite Spicy Challenge.

Select creators receive the Mukbang Straw and use it to film their own versions of the experience. Their content is supported by influencer partnerships, public relations, experiential activity and paid media.

This staged rollout allows the unusual object to introduce the idea before the challenge expands it. The hero creators demonstrate how the straw works, while the wider creator group develops different reactions and interpretations.

The physical product gives those individual videos a consistent identifying feature.

A product becomes an audio brand asset

Sprite is normally recognised through visual elements such as its green packaging, lemon-lime imagery and bubbles. The Mukbang Straw explores whether the brand can also build recognition through sound.

The campaign does not create a conventional audio logo. Instead, it increases the volume of an existing product behaviour: drinking a fizzy beverage.

This makes the sound inseparable from the experience being advertised. The audience does not simply hear a piece of music associated with Sprite. It hears the product being consumed at the most dramatic point in the video.

Because the campaign and creator activation have only recently launched, Sprite has not announced distribution numbers for the limited-edition straw, content views, participation figures or sales results.

Its immediate strength is the connection between product, platform and creator culture. By engineering a straw for microphones as much as mouths, Sprite has made the sound of refreshment part of the campaign.

Credits

The Mukbang Straw was created for Sprite Canada by WPP Open X, led by VML Canada, with media handled by Publicis and Takis serving as the snack partner. The client team included Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships Laura Cutsey, Director of Integrated Marketing Jacques Blanchet and Senior Manager of Integrated Marketing Solange Grimard. The agency team included Chief Creative Officer Graham Lang, General Manager Louthiern Bonsart, Executive Creative Director Mélissa Charland, Associate Creative Director Jérôme Bajulaz, Art Directors Constance Prodhomme and Fabrice Bouty, Copywriters Michaella Antony and Chloée Desjardins, Strategy Director Charles-André Marleau, Account Directors Camille Joly and Gaëlle Paquet, Account Managers Nicolas Laurin and Victoria Walsh, Account Executives Emma Toth and Sarah Brochet, Executive Producer Rose Gauthier-Robitaille, Head of Integrated Studio Maxime Boivin, Head of Production and Studio Patrick Conway, Production Artists Maurice Beauchesne, Hugo Lambert and Gregory Fleurantin, Retoucher Andy Smits, Reviewers Julie Goulet and Anna Verma, General Management PR lead Meredith Montgomery, Associate Creative Director PR Adela Kang, PR Account Manager Josephine Han and PR Specialist Joëlle Paquette. Production partners were Robocut Studio and Bouillant Animation.