As the world grapples with a pandemic and speeds towards irreversible climate change, old advertising tactics don't work like they used to. Pictures of delicious looking sandwiches aren't enough — brands have to start chicken sandwich wars, and carry the battles out on social media. In this media landscape, it's not surprising that Oreo commissioned a "doomsday" vault to preserve the iconic cookies in case of an asteroid.
Today, even advertising campaigns that would have once seemed novel are passe. It has to be bigger. In 2018, IHOP changed its name to IHOb: International House of burgers, dropping the pancake-centric name. It worked, quadrupling burger sales. "Literally everybody in the world now knows that IHOP is now selling burgers," IHOP's president, Darren Rebelez, told Business Insider at the time.
The IHOP stunt worked, but it looked tiny in comparison to Planters' campaign, in which it killed off mascot Mr. Peanut before reincarnating him as Baby Nut, now known as Peanut Jr. The company scrapped plans for a Mr. Peanut funeral-slash-Superbowl commercial after Kobe Bryant's death and went on to expand the bizarre universe of the mascot, explaining that "when a nut like me completes its life cycle, our spirit moves to another shell."
No one was asking for this. In fact, "#blockMrPeanut" went viral among critics. Now, Oreo is joining the cast of snack foods that advertise to us while also reminding us of our own mortality amid a particuarly challening year amid a pandemic with an asteroid-proof doomsday vault in Norway.