Black Thought Mentors a Young Drizzler in Mike's Hot Honey Film

A drizzle that started on one slice of pizza in Brooklyn now has its own movie, and a Grammy winner is starring in it.

Mike's Hot Honey released "The Drizzler," a short film starring Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter of The Roots.

Here, he plays a mentor guiding a young pizzeria worker through the craft of the pour.

The film follows the young "Drizzler" as he learns the rhythm and timing behind adding the honey to every pie that leaves the counter.

This act is treated as something closer to a passed-down ritual worth studying more than a garnish or a topping.

"Every great food tradition starts somewhere," Mike Kurtz, founder of Mike's Hot Honey, said in a press release.

"For Mike's Hot Honey, it started in a Brooklyn pizzeria and spread one drizzle at a time.

'The Drizzler' celebrates the people who turned that simple act into a ritual and a community," Kurtz added.

Trotter, whose production company Two One Five (co-founded with Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson) produced the film, sees the project as personal.

"Whether you're making music, making pizza or perfecting the drizzle, there's something special about the people who invest themselves in what they do," he said.

Treat the ritual as the product is one of the smartest brand storytelling moves a condiment can make.

The campaign launched nationwide on July 1 across connected TV, online video, social and digital channels.

The Pour Becomes a Rite of Passage

The film was directed by Anthony Jamari Thomas of Scheme Engine and developed with creative agency Another Thing.

James Poyser of The Roots composed the musical score.

It starts with a young man walking into Tariq's Pizzeria to take on the role of "the Drizzler."

He's taught by Black Thought himself, who guides him through the proper ways of drizzling hot honey over pizza as the lunch rush kicks in. 

"The Mike's is your instrument," Tariq tells him, as he masters the craft. 

Come 3:00 p.m., when the students have been dismissed, the apprentice is then tasked with drizzling hot honey over a scoop of gelato.

After hesitating, Black Thought assures the boy that "everything gets hit with the Mike's." 

The spot ends with the Grammy artist crowning the boy with the role, encouraging him to "keep drizzling." 

Apart from the spot, the brand is also calling fans to apply and become official Mike's Hot Honey Drizzlers.

It's a new recognition program for people who already push the ritual into their own circles, pushing Mike's brand identity built on grassroots repetition.

Agency Noble People is running the surrounding media push, which includes creator content, commerce media tie-ins, and a citywide pizza box takeover in Chicago.

Every Ritual Starts Somewhere

Mike's Hot Honey's always pushed the idea that consumers are the real inventors of the drizzle.

And this campaign formalizes this origin story into an IP the brand owns.

• Bake user behavior into brand lore. Drizzling has been a Mike's Hot Honey didn't invent drizzling; its customers did, and the brand is now the one telling that story back to them.
• Recruit fans before recruiting customers. The Drizzler program rewards recurring customers to further build brand loyalty. 
• Localize the national story. The Chicago pizza box takeover grounds a national film campaign in a single city's pizza counters.

Products get copied fast, so the lasting advantage is the community a brand builds around the habit.

Our Take: Does the Drizzling Do the Heavy Lifting?

Trotter draws the eye, but we think the drizzle is doing the actual selling here.

The film spends most of its runtime on the wrist motion, the pacing, and the moment the honey hits the cheese.

The ritual reads as something worth learning, which is why we think this holds up better than a standard spokesperson spot.

In short, casting helped this ad get noticed, but the drizzle and the product itself are what will make people stay.

Creative partnerships that use music to sell products work best when the artist's identity and the brand's story share the same cultural ground.

These top branding agencies help companies apply timeless storytelling with modern experiences.