Breaking: There's A 'Shark Week'-Themed Donut

In honor — if that’s the word — of the long-running Discovery Channel series, Dunkin’ Donuts is introducing a Shark Week -themed donut, because why not? After all, if any product is screaming for a shark-based promotional tie-in, it’s a donut, right? The white-and-red “Shark Bite” donut is shaped like a flotation device and will be available at select Dunkin’ Donuts locations throughout the country.

But this is just the beginning. The Dunkin’ Donuts logo will undergo a temporary change to make it appear as if it’s been bitten by a shark, and according to Harold Morgenstern, Discovery’s senior vice president of ad sales, the popular donut shop will be involved “in all of our higher-rated premier shows across the network” from now on. Morgenstern says the deal will ultimately culminate in a billboard in Times Square.

“We’re going to have a ‘Take a Bite, Take a Pic’ [promo], encouraging fans to take a bite and take a picture of it,” Morgenstern said. “During Shark After Dark, we’ll show some of those and have some prizing involved.”

Of course, looking at a picture of someone eating a Shark Week donut isn’t nearly as fun as either eating a donut or watching Shark Week, but if the promo encourages people to do both, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that.

Obviously, the biggest priority here should be that the donut tastes good. That unfortunately wasn’t the case with the last high-profile donut promotion, 7-11’s ill-advised Simpsons-themed donut. That was released in 2007 to coincide with the film and was widely perceived as a disaster, thanks in part to the lack of jelly filling.

The Shark Bite donut isn’t anything too fancy: Just a regular yeast donut with red and white frosting. But all in all, it’s a pretty nice-looking donut, the seemingly-random promotional tie-in notwithstanding. And besides, who’s going to complain about more donut options? That’s never a bad thing.