Mondelez International is a company with revenues that sit upwards of $25 billion per annum. The old adage goes that ‘revenue is vanity’ and yet in the world of corporate dick-swinging, that’s still some serious girth. And, at the very least, one would hope to see some interesting ad creative come out of a company with revenues that are higher than Iceland’s GDP.
Enter Lady Gaga. Some poor folks at The Martin Agency who were behind this creative had one of those very, very late nights where no ideas would stick. So they just applied some tape and then presented this.
In case it’s not clear, that’s a pack of Oreos with the words ‘LADY’ and ‘GAGA’ printed onto them. Hmm. Cannes Lions winning material, I think not.
Okay, I’m applying a little hyperbole. There’s a broader campaign here. Some of the Oreos are pink with green goop in them and have little pictures of a heart and something resembling a xenomorph baked into their exterior.
You can also sing a duet with Lady Gaga via a split video, and there’s some tweets where the meme content doesn’t even really work.
You, walking into the store to get a pack of @LadyGaga OREO cookies before they sell out. pic.twitter.com/dnl8blRZAJ
— OREO Cookie (@Oreo) January 28, 2021
The point is that this is among the worst excesses of marketing. Thoughtless, effortless, and from a strategic perspective what does it even do? Who suggested Oreos and Lady Gaga belong anywhere near each other in a campaign?
I don’t mean to be overly mean to Oreo. I write this because I love marketing. I love everything that goes into it. Even the best marketers have days where they feel down about the work they’re crafting and the campaigns they’re running. But when those days happen, just take 5 seconds to look at this campaign and you’ll see you’re probably doing alright.
It feels like a piece like this should end with a witty reference or pun to a Lady Gaga song, but that’d require a bit of effort and I’m not even raking in $25 billion a year yet.
