Side Salad: America Runs on John Daly

June 17, 2026

Good morning from Dieline’s editor-in-chief, Bill McCool. Here’s your daily side serving of design news, short musings, brand stuff, and forgotten ephemera.

• You know, when you make a diatribe against plastic cans, like I did yesterday, it helps when you actually put the hyperlink where it belongs! Anywho, in the first item, without much context, I was talking about the new Svedka Canned Vodka Water. My mind hasn’t changed since then. They’re still awful.

• A’ja Wilson, a WNBA Champion three times over and the league’s first-ever 4x WNBA MVP, just got her own Wheaties box.

• I don’t think this is the death knell for Pizza Hut, but that nostalgia trip everyone seems to be on means that those plastic cups and Tiffany lamps will have to do some serious heavy lifting if you want to see those red roofs surge back into the American consciousness.

• Speaking of being borne back ceaselessly into the past, this coffee company packages its beans in VHS cartridges.

• A cruel thing I do to my younger brother is make obnoxious yum sounds when eating a cheesesteak or a whole pizza pie in his presence because he has Celiac’s. This is all to say that Banza and Campbell’s just dropped a GF Chicken Noodle Soup.

• 10/10 against wrapping a head of lettuce in plastic, but this soccer ball wrapping is admittedly pretty cute.

• e.l.f. just released a haircare line. Watch out for tween allowance advances.

• Holy shit. The John Daly Dunkin’ commercial. This is better than the “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” performance and is perhaps the most accurate reflection of living in the United States.

• Speaking of, everything is working exactly how it’s supposed to.

Have a better day.

-Bill