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Bravo celebrates their newest show with the Just Desserts Badge — and free desserts

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on September 15th, 2010

If you enjoy Bravo’s Top Chef and you like desserts, Bravo has come up with the perfect show for you: Top Chef Just Desserts. They’re kicking off their newest show with “Just Desserts Day” and giving away free desserts across the country. They’re rewarding foursquare users with a special badge, too. You can unlock your Just Desserts badge by checking in at any of the free dessert locations today.

The unlock text reads:

It’s time to get your sweet on! Show this badge and enjoy today’s FREE* dessert offer. And don’t miss the premiere of Just Desserts tonight on BRAVO at 11/10c. (*some restrictions may apply.)

The free dessert offer is valid today from 1-3 pm at more than 200 dessert shops nationwide. Many of the shops are celebrating with special “Just Desserts Day” parties. You can find a list of participating eateries on Bravo’s Facebook page.

This is Bravo’s eighth branded foursquare badge. The design of the Just Desserts badge is the same as the regular Top Chef badge, but with a different color scheme. Other Bravo badges include Bravo Newbie, Real Housewife, Hair Aware, Fashionista, Andy Cohen and Lookin’ for Love.

Bravo is also celebrating Just Desserts Day with a partnership with opentable.com. Users who reserve a table today at more than 800 restaurants listed at opentable.com/freedesserts will receive a free dessert for every two people in their party. There will also be Bravo-branded dessert trucks handing out sweets today in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

What do you think of the new Just Desserts badge?

UPDATE (9/16): The badge is still unlockable, even though the one-day promotion has passed. The unlock text has changed to read:

You’re a foodie that loves savory but it’s time to get your sweet on! Savor your badge BRAVO style.

It is now a category based badge, unlockable anywhere in the world.

  • http://www.allankintz.com ack154

    Not a single venue outside of NYC within NY. FAIL.

    I wish companies realized there was more to NY State than NYC. :(

    • Chris Thompson

      Not a single one in Ohio either. Seventh most populous state and we can’t get any love from Bravo?

      • scott topic

        this is yet another example of foursquare catering only to their urban users. they need to do badges that reward checking into things based on their categories, not just a few big name venues in a few big cities. this would be a perfect badge to go with “bakery”, “desserts”, or other categories that would across the world. instead it’s relegated to a select few people who just so happened to live in one of the select few cities. i’m not sure how they expect to expand their userbase when they don’t allow most of the country to participate in the game. :-\

      • Chris Thompson

        I agree, Scott. This would have been a great badge to tie to the desserts category maybe with a special shout. That would certainly lead to more exposure as these badges get posted to Twitter and Facebook. Exposure is what it’s all about, right?

      • http://travelok.com Jennifer Kalkman

        Chris, I want to make sure that I understand your 9-16 update. Do you now get the Just Desserts badge anywhere in the world that is a bakery category? If so, I’ll help spread the word to TravelOK’s friends!

      • http://twitter.com/SpamSpam Spam

        The reason why this badge was tied to specific venues on the first day was because those locations were not only promoting the show, but also being photographed and/or videotaped for Bravo’s promotion. It was important for them to drive people to those specific dessert shops.

      • Fusion C.

        Actually, my friend got it at a Panera bread in Ohio just a little while ago. I was not a follower of Bravo so I missed out.

  • Rudy

    Holy hell, for once, San Antonio is receiving some love. I feel bad for those in Austin though.

    Anyways, it appears several of these locations across the U.S. have been mass imported by Bravo.

  • ichristopher

    It can be unlocked in Chicago here:

    http://foursquare.com/venue/80625

  • http://mattersofgrey.com/foursquare-badge-list/ Chaunce Dolan

    Looks like it might be available in 10 different cities:
    http://www.opentable.com/promo.aspx?pid=477&ref=8596

  • Chris (FoursquareHelp)

    So many big cities left out of this promotion… badges NEED to be made available to more than just the select few in the ‘Foursquare-blessed’ cities.

    • http://twitter.com/SpamSpam Spam

      Baltimore is definitely not a “foursquare-blessed’ city, and we had nine eligible locations in the area. These locations weren’t picked by foursquare; they are the locations where Bravo teamed up with a shop for the promotion. In fact, foursquare wasn’t even on any of the signage or promotion material, and you didn’t have to check in to get your free dessert.

      If you want to be sore at anyone about the scope of the promotion, bark up Bravo’s tree, not foursquare’s.

  • http://twitter.com/oneramjac JR

    Just to clarify… will the badge only be available to unlock for today ONLY? Or is it just the Free Dessert that’s for today ONLY?

  • Sean Robison

    I have a feeling it will only unlock during the free dessert window (1 – 3 PM your time).

    I checked into one of the participating locations this morning and the badge didn’t unlock (but I did, at least, get a tasty treat).

    Unless, of course, it’s a Foursquare code bug (like how the MTV Moonman failed to unlock until they fixed a bug).

    • ichristopher

      It can be unlocked anytime TODAY. I unlocked it this morning at 8:15am. The locations on opentable are not necessarily where you unlock this badge.

      • Chris Thompson

        I don’t think the opentable list has anything to do with the promo.

      • Sean Robison

        I tried it from one of the locations on Bravo’s PDF on their Facebook page.

        But I’m going to try later from another location — and get a free treat also.

      • http://twitter.com/oneramjac JR

        Cool. Thanks for the heads up, all.

        Sean – Let me know if it ends up working out for you.

      • Sean Robison

        I was able to unlock it at a local participating cupcake place. Even got a very cute (and tasty) little free cupcake!

      • Sean Robison

        Oh, and since everyone is listing them — the cupcake place is Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank, CA.

      • http://twitter.com/oneramjac JR

        Sweet. Congrats, Sean. Did you unlock the badge just now?

        I’m gonna try to hit up BabyCakes in Downtown once I get off work. I’m hoping the badge unlock is still active by then…

      • Sean Robison

        Yes, I did unlock the badge. I also took a screen print of the badge unlocking, so I have the original text that came with it.

    • Judy Y

      Sean, here in Houston I saw where someone in San Antonio unlocked it around 10 a.m. We are on CST. Luckily Houston had about 5 options. I went first to 3 brothers bakery (about 12:20 p.m., bought 3 cupcakes for $12, LOL) and checked in, but my Blackberry didn’t show up that I got the badge afterward. I figured since I’m on that side of town (URBAN), I’d go to another location and by then it would be 1 p.m. Went inside to see what was going on and there was a crowd. Checked in again, and no appearance of the badge. I was frustrated to say the least. I got home, checked online and low and behold, the badge is showing up. SO WEIRD! The staff at the bakeries were clueless as to what was going on. There were some pics being taken by Bravo reps. I also hear that the badge should be available to get during the 1st season of this show, so you can probably still get it, but just pay for your sweets. ALSO, check your account online. You may just have the badge and don’t know it yet. Good Luck.

      • Sean Robison

        Some of the venues on Bravo’s PDF wouldn’t unlock the badge either on purpose or because of a code error.

  • edgar

    Looks like Bravo is duplicating venues for this promo.

    They have several venues in San Diego and the Godiva Chicolatiers seem to be all dupes, done by them. d’oh!

  • JG Geary

    Only 14 states, what about the other 36 ?

  • mercedes sherman

    Got it in atlanta at the godiva on peachtree near lenox. Got a nice treat too!

  • http://www.antdogs.com Anthony

    i just got this at Amys Bread at 9th Av if you wanna get it

  • Pat

    Anyone unlock this post 3pm yet???

    • Chris Thompson

      I’d say it will stay active for everyone until at least 3pm on the West Coast.

    • http://twitter.com/oneramjac JR

      I just did a search on twitter. Looks like people have been able to unlock the badge as of 10 minutes ago. Sweet.

  • Dustin

    This is lame and it’s typical of foursquare to shun people who don’t live in major cities. I live in Florida and we have big cities such as Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando but Miami is the only one with participating places. Fail.

    • Michael

      That’s not Foursquare’s fault, that’s Bravo’s fault. Bravo chose the participants, not Foursquare.

      • Dustin

        It is foursquare’s fault because they have allowed the site to change from a game into a corporate advertising tool. They are the ones that create the badges and allow users to obtain them so I think they need to make sure the companies that are making money by advertising with them are making badges that can be accessible to more people.

        As I said foursquare has quickly turned into nothing but a way for corporations to advertise and make money off of people by creating badges in order to get traffic on their websites and people into stores and other places that they deem as “cool”.

  • Michael

    Got it at Sweet Miss Giving’s here in Chicago. They didn’t have a freebie though, just a by one, get one half off and a bunch of free samples.

  • Teshia

    Are they any locations in Phoenix? I can’t access the check in spots since I’m at work. :(

  • http://thecheapdish.tumblr.com/ Emilyq

    I love the badge but it didn’t unlock when I checked into Vanilla Bake Shop for Just Desserts in Santa Monica. Why??

  • http://www.mypoproks.com comehomenow

    They are probably picking the cities/venues based on foursquare stats. Compare the foot traffic at a bakery in downtown Manhattan to that in Buffalo, NY. Not going to have a particular bakery participate if it’s not going to be worth their investment. It does suck, but that’s advertising.

    • http://www.mypoproks.com comehomenow

      Rather, based on foot traffic stats in general. 200 is a generous number – not every city will be included.

  • http://twitter.com/karilikesafari KariLikeSafari

    Hubby & I unlocked this at one of the Godiva Chocolate stores here in San Diego; got the location from the Bravo PDF at http://www.topchefjustdesserts.com/pdf/list_9_15.pdf

  • eVan Schmalz

    i just unlocked the badge at a Bakery Thrift Store in Grand Rapids, MI that is catagorized as a “bakery”.

  • Ching Yu

    DC peeps: I unlocked this yesterday at 4:55pm at Godiva Chocolatier on M Street in Georgetown. It’s still unlockable, I just searched Twitter. http://foursquare.com/venue/1120386

  • Michael

    So they’re supposed to say to Bravo, who teamed up with Foursquare back when Foursquare was barely on the radar of non-internet geeks, “sorry, you can’t create anymore branded badges unless you open them up everywhere.”

    I agree there should be more non-branded badges but it’s bad business for Foursquare to turn down any sponsorship deal (unless it’s something Foursquare thinks would be morally reprehensible to its users).

    • Dustin

      I think that they should say that. The problem I have with foursquare now is that it isn’t about the user it’s about the dollar. By foursquare allowing all of these companies to put out these limited badges and then promote them they are showing that they care more about corporate logos and advertising than the people that registered back when foursquare was just a blip on the radar.

      Most of my friends quit using the app because of this so now I have hardly any active foursquare friends and I can’t really earn anymore badges. It’s pretty sad that something that started as a fun game with friends turned into a bunch of corporate b.s.

      I’m probably going to deep for a little post about a new badge but I’m tired of trying to use this app and seeing all of this supposedly great new stuff that I can’t get.

      • Michael

        I definitely understand that frustration. But I think we’ve just seen the tip of the iceburg as far as local badges and Foursquare generated badges go. These are still the early adopters and Foursquare is still catching up to the sudden amount of users. Badges probably haven’t been a priority but they are starting to come fast and furious again.

      • http://twitter.com/SpamSpam Spam

        Dustin, you’re blowing this out of proportion. Most foursquare users don’t even hear about these promotional badges (despite the tweets from @foursquare and @aboutfoursquare), and even those who do don’t go after them as vigorously as those of us who are commenting on this article.

        Remember, you and I are superfans of the app and the service; most people are content with earning mayorships and letting their friends know where they are. For them, badges are icing on the cake (pun not intended) which are nice to get but not worth going well out of their way for.

  • http://www.allankintz.com ack154

    Do we know which categories exactly? Is it just Bakery or Desserts? Cause I don’t think there are any places like that I go to. But I do occasionally go for Ice Cream.

  • Mercedes S

    Dustin :
    It is foursquare’s fault because they have allowed the site to change from a game into a corporate advertising tool. They are the ones that create the badges and allow users to obtain them so I think they need to make sure the companies that are making money by advertising with them are making badges that can be accessible to more people.

    I smell butthurt.

    Foursquare is a company. Go figure that they’re going to make a location based mobile game be about finding more specific places and allowing and encouraging businesses to use this social networking tool as a social network. Foursquare is growing, more badges will be available to you. If Bravo wanted specific places to be featured, that’s fine. Bravo related badge. Bravo can request whatever they want. Not that big a deal. Let foursquare continue to grow.

  • Zach

    Unlocked the badge Friday night at Pinkberry: Categorized as “Desserts” with no other tags.

  • Katie

    I unlocked (totally to my surprise!) this badge today after checking into a Baskin-Robbins location in Port Huron, Michigan

  • Dayve

    I have no idea how I got this badge. I checked in at a local custard shop in Fresno, California and all of a sudden I got the message with the badge. Still wondering how all this came about.

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