Oreo built an 'asteroid-proof doomsday vault' for cookies as advertising takes a turn for the apocalyptic
Mary Meisenzahl
- Oreo created an asteroid-proof vault in Norway to store cookies and their recipe.
- The marketing stunt was inspired by the Global Seed Vault, which protects a record of biodiversity.
- Oreo is following in the footsteps of recent marketing gimmicks, like Planter's Baby Nut or IHOP rebranding as IHOB.
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.
Oreo was inspired by the Global Seed Vault, a building that holds more than 930,000 types of seeds from around the world.
Source: Time
"It is away from the places on earth where you have war and terror, everything maybe you are afraid of in other places. It is situated in a safe place," property manager Bente Naeverdal told Time.
Oreo picked the same location in Svalbard, Norway.
The site is an archipelago between Norway and the North Pole, the farthest north that commercial airlines fly.
Oreo says the vault is to protect the recipes from Asteroid 2018VP1, which could've hit Earth in early November. " OREO isn't risking a future without the world's favorite cookie..." it said in a press release.
The vault contains Oreos, powdered milk, and the recipe.
They're also wrapped in Mylar to withstand extreme temperatures, moisture, and air.
Oreo says cookies will stay in the vault " until the asteroid threat has passed."
If the worst does happen, Oreo has shared the coordinates of the vault. "You'll see it. It's the one down the road from the Giant Seed Vault. "
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