Krispy Kreme’s original offer had a hole in it. Back in March, Krispy Kreme began offering an “Original Glazed” doughnut to anyone who could prove that they had been vaccinated against Covid-19, as I covered previously for Forbes. The hole was in the middle of the doughnut, as the “Original Glazed” doughnut is shaped like an inner tube but at no point should be used as one.
That doughnut-a-day offer still holds until the end of 2021. So in theory, you could still get around 120 more free doughnuts for the rest of the year, assuming you are vaccinated.
But this coming week, from August 30 through September 5, you can get something else each day as well. Not just one doughnut, but two doughnuts, as the Count on Sesame Street would say. The “Show Your Heart” week-long deal is for pair of doughnuts: the “Original Glazed” doughnut plus a special “Original Glazed Heart” doughnut. Yep, each day next week, you can get that glazed look twice for free. But one of the glazed doughnuts will not have a hole in it. It will be shaped like a heart as the following tweet about the sweets shows:
According to the Krispy Kreme website, you’ll qualify as vaccinated if you’ve received “at least 1 of the 2 shots of the Moderna or Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine or 1 shot of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 Vaccine.” The only way to prove this is to show your Covid-19 Vaccination Record Card. If you are going to try some other means of “proving” that you are vaccinated such as showing a sticker or saying “trust me,” “doughnut” even go there. The “honor system” ain’t going to work here, because we’ve seen how well that has worked in the U.S. so far.
Additionally, if you pull up in a car and say, “I and the 127 people in my Hyundai Elantra would like 256 doughnuts please,” each person will have to provide proof of vaccination.
Will this second doughnut be the tipping point for some to get vaccinated? Will anyone say, “hmm, I wouldn’t do it for one free doughnut a day. But two is different story.” Or might someone say, “I don’t have enough money to buy a doughnut. Maybe I will get vaccinated so that I can get a doughnut.” Hard to say. It isn’t clear how much such offers are convincing people to get vaccinated.
Nevertheless, it does signal that businesses like Krispy Kreme understand the value of getting as many people vaccinated as possible. Naturally, most businesses, like most of the country, want the Covid-19 coronavirus to stop spreading in the U.S. in an uncontrolled manner as it has since the Spring of 2020. In other words, they want the pandemic to end. They probably want to move forward into a situation where social distancing and face mask wearing are no longer necessary. And doughnut expect that to happen until vaccination rates are high enough for our society to reach herd immunity thresholds.