Garage Beer is giving football season a Halloween twist with a new campaign that turns some of tailgating’s most recognizable characters into collectible monsters.
Created in partnership with Kingsford, “Terrors of the Tailgate” leans into ’90s sports marketing and monster-card nostalgia, reimagining game-day rituals as a lineup of larger-than-life creatures. Leading the pack is Garage Beer co-owner Jason Kelce as the “King of the Tailgate.”
He is joined by five familiar parking-lot personalities, including the Table Smasher, the Face Paint Fanatic, the Cooler Raider, the Parking Lot Prophet, and Kingsford’s Flamekeeper – the person who controls the grill, the meat, and, apparently, the entire vibe.
The campaign centers on limited-edition trading cards, available for $5.99 through Garage Beer, with additional opportunities for fans to win packs through the brand’s social channels. Watch below:
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“The ’90s had a grip on fall like no other era,” said Garage Beer founder and CEO Andy Sauer. “Football season, trading cards, Halloween, there was just something about it.”
That nostalgia became the foundation for the campaign, which mixes old-school collectible culture with the rituals that still define modern tailgating.
Sauer added that the fundamentals have not changed much: “Friends, Garage Beer in the cooler and Kingsford charcoal in the grill. If you’re not grilling or drinking, you’re probably not tailgating.”
The characters also come to life in a hero spot featuring the full lineup, with Kelce leading the search for the creatures hiding in football parking lots across the country.
The concept gives both brands an easy way into the personality of football fandom without focusing on the game itself. Instead, it celebrates the people around it – the overprepared, overpainted, overconfident fans who make the parking lot as much a part of the experience as the stadium.
Because every tailgate has at least one monster.
