Side Salad: Sorry, Mexico, But We'll Always Have Tala Pappi and Carlitos Queso
July 7, 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.
I just got back from a week off, and I very much feel like that bear waking from hibernation. Please be gentle with me—I mostly have no idea what’s happening in the world!
Atari’s video game art holds a special place in my heart, and those cartridges had to do some serious heavy lifting. Check out Rudy’s piece and put some respect on Chris Spohn’s name.
Ciggy’s is a truly terrible name for a vodka seltzer brand (complimentary tho).
America runs on Chopeando (you deserved better, Mexico!)
Speaking of the World Cup, Marmite “rebranded” to “We Mite.” This means England will lose to Norway.
Celebrate this Philadelphia hero and his 3k t-shirts.
God damn, even HOG WATER has to use those awful plastic cans? What has Info Wars become!
Admittedly, I’m pretty smitten with Little Sun’s Calimocho, and wine + cola very much deserves to be your drinky-poo of choice for poolside-sipping season. I interviewed Zero Studios about the branding and packaging.
Busch Light released a farmer-friendly beer can with proceeds going to Farm Rescue.
Not really feeling this bottle, but I love the name Annual Leave for a fragrance brand.
First, we had “luddite teens,” now we have luddite festivals?
I am once again asking you to buy your physical media. There is no guarantee that your digital copy of Sherman’s March and Killer of Sheep will always be yours (FWIW, I don’t own digital copies of these, I’m just name-dropping some flicks you should watch…and I will buy Sherman when it’s rereleased). Sure, you might be able to stream every song that was ever made this very second, but who’s to say how long that will last? This is all to say that PlayStation will no longer make physical copies of its games starting in January 2028.
Forgot to drop this ol’ chestnut before the holiday weekend, but it bears repeating post America 250.
TTYL, kids. And congrats to every Sixers fan for the heist of the 21st century.
-Bill