- Instacart launched "The Male Shopper Project," a branded entertainment micro-drama starring Antoni Porowski and Hannah Berner, built around the viral meme that men aren't reliable grocery shoppers.
- This is Instacart's first move into the micro-drama format, and the first ad campaign either star has done for the brand.
- The episode promotes Instacart's Grocery Quality Controls suite: Shopper Notes, Replacement Preferences, Smart Backup, and Preference Picker.
- Instacart is pointing to more than 100 million five-star shopper ratings from last year as its real-world counter to the meme.
Instacart is trying something new: micro-drama. The grocery delivery platform’s latest project, “The Male Shopper Project,” stars Antoni Porowski of Netflix’s “Queer Eye” and Hannah Berner of the “Giggly Squad” podcast in a branded entertainment episode that leans directly into the viral meme that men aren’t the best grocery shoppers, a cultural debate that’s generated millions of social views.
The short film marks Instacart’s first foray into the micro-drama format, joining other brands testing the trend, including Uber Eats, which sent Gordon Ramsay barging into home cooks’ kitchens for its own World Cup-timed global campaign with Uber Eats earlier this summer.
Instacart brand marketing VP Jasmine Taylor said the goal was to answer the meme with entertainment rather than a defensive ad, citing over 100 million five-star ratings last year as proof shoppers get it right, while noting Porowski and Berner give the project cultural credibility to cut through the noise.
The episode ties into Instacart’s Grocery Quality Controls, a suite of in-app tools including Shopper Notes, Replacement Preferences, Smart Backup, and Preference Picker, which lets customers specify exactly how they like items picked, from banana ripeness to peach firmness and deli meat thickness.
This is the first ad collaboration Instacart has done with either star, but the brand has stayed busy with celebrity-fronted work all year. In June, Brittney Sykes, Marina Mabrey, and Isabelle Harrison starred in Instacart’s Toronto Tempo campaign. In February, Ben Stiller and Benson Boone turned Instacart’s Preference Picker into a disco showdown for its second straight Super Bowl ad.
Berner, meanwhile, is midway through a big year that’s included her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit debut and cheering on “Giggly Squad” co-host Paige DeSorbo, who teamed with Kourtney Kardashian on a bed brand collaboration this spring.
Takeaways
Instacart isn’t shying away from the “male shopper” jokes; it’s turning them into content and pairing the bit with a real product fix (Preference Picker) so the joke doubles as a pitch. That’s a sharper move than just ignoring the meme or issuing a defensive statement.
Pairing a food-culture figure like Porowski with a comedy-and-pop-culture voice like Berner also lets Instacart hit two different audiences with one piece of content, rather than picking a lane.
And this is one more data point in a bigger 2026 pattern: brands from Uber Eats to Instacart are increasingly choosing entertainment over straightforward advertising to reach scroll-happy audiences.
Does leaning into a meme actually shift how people see a brand, or does it just keep the joke alive longer? Will “The Male Shopper Project” become a recurring series, given how often Instacart has stacked celebrity campaigns this year?
