With ‘CringeMart,’ DoorDash positions itself as a solution to awkwardness

Hemorrhoid cream, a plunger, anything remotely sexual. Some items are so embarrassing to buy people would often rather go without than deal with any potentially awkward interaction at the checkout counter when purchasing them.

DoorDash is taking that embarrassment up to 11 in a social series aimed at promoting “CringeMart,” a new shopping hub on the delivery app that collects such items in one dedicated area.

In the series, which uses a hidden camera concept and stars content creator Tana Mongeau, actors playing customers purchase embarrassing items and are made to become the center of attention, unable to avoid an uncomfortable conversation about what they’re buying. Most cringe-worthy of all: Another, real customer is positioned behind them, and is made to watch the unsettling social encounter play out.

“We’ve all experienced being in-person, having to buy a super cringe item, and how awkward and annoying that feeling is,” Zaria Parvez, head of social at DoorDash, told us. “DoorDash almost feels like the solution to avoid that moment and avoid that cringe…[It’s] an actual, practical use case of the DoorDash.”

The series, which will have five episodes, exaggerates the scenario, making someone’s worst social nightmare come true—and later presenting DoorDash as the solution. Calling the shopping hub “CringeMart” is a recognition of common vernacular with a younger generation that may be looking to avoid being cringe at all costs.

“Having that secondhand embarrassment through the screen exemplifies the tone of why this is important,” Parvez said. “It’s less about saying that, ‘Oh, there’s a stigma behind these products and they are cringe,’ but more of we already feel discomfort as a person. It’s a human thing that we all feel for some reason. So we’re just trying to normalize it a bit more.”

To further support “CringeMart” beyond the social series, DoorDash has an out-of-home component, including custom billboards in Los Angeles and New York that highlight the number of condoms—one of the embarrassing items sold on the platform—that are purchased in real-time. (According to DoorDash internal data, a customer buys condoms every 37 seconds on the delivery app.)

DoorDash worked with creative studio Loop on the campaign. The creative team brainstormed the various items that would be fun to see quantified on a billboard, ultimately landing on condoms because “there’s real data and metrics” to track. Plus, the possibility of a real-life couple meeting up under the billboard was too appealing to pass up, Nick Gallo, founder and CEO of Loop, told us.

“‘What if we kissed under the condom billboard?’ was a fun [idea] in the room,” he said.