- MoonPie and SunChips, two snack brands with names drawing on celestial bodies, are ramping up separate marketing efforts around the entire solar eclipse on April 8.
- Chattanooga Bakery-owned MoonPie is running a social media campaign that pits the moon against the sun in a professional wrestling-inspired matchup. The marshmallow sandwich purveyor can also be dropping Survival Kits in the shape of blackout boxes that cater to eclipse viewing.
- Frito-Lay’s SunChips will release a recent flavor that’s exclusively available for the duration of the solar eclipse. The Solar Eclipse Limited-Edition Pineapple Habanero and Black Bean Spicy Gouda is being promoted in partnership with astronaut and researcher Kellie Gerardi.
While attentions will turn skyward on April 8, marketers are attempting to make essentially the most of the weeks leading as much as a highly anticipated astronomical event by releasing exclusive products and content that’s either humorous or educational. The total solar eclipse occurring on April 8 shall be the last of its kind visible from the contiguous U.S. until Aug. 23, 2044.
Eclipses incessantly stoke public excitement as people attempt to catch a glimpse of the celestial bodies overlapping, aided by protective glasses that guard against the sun’s rays. That level of hype has been amplified within the era of social media, where discussions around live events can blow up in real time. Around the solar eclipse in 2017, MoonPie made waves by taking a shot across the bow at rival Hostess on the platform then referred to as Twitter.
MoonPie is taking advantage of social media again in 2024 by staging a WWE-like spoof between the moon and the sun, “a cosmic rematch billions of years within the making,” in line with a press release. An ad for the “Sun vs. Moon ‘24: Brutality within the Totality” event takes cues from wrestling promos, with musclebound men taunting one another within the ring. The over-the-top teaser is briefly interrupted by an authority who tries to elucidate the specifics of the eclipse before he’s cut off by a bombastic announcer.
The marshmallow sandwich marketer can also be hawking survival kits that double as blackout boxes to assist with eclipse viewing. The limited-edition products, which are available chocolate, vanilla and banana flavors, shall be sold at Dollar Tree, participating Walmart stores and a variety of grocers, together with on the brand’s website.
MoonPie has been developing more colourful marketing with help from agency of record Tombras. The company late last 12 months ran a campaign with ads targeted at extraterrestrials, capitalizing on interest in government hearings around UFOs.
Meanwhile, SunChips is leaning right into a scientific angle, collaborating with astronaut, researcher and parent Gerardi, whose work tries to make complex concepts easily digestible and fun. The brand has arrange an internet site dedicated to the eclipse and is producing content for Instagram, TikTok, X and Facebook for the occasion. In addition, it’s going to carve messages aimed toward the moon in wheat fields that align along the trail of totality.
The brevity of the astronomical event can also be a consider the Frito-Lay campaign. SunChips will sell its recent themed chips for just 4 minutes and 27 seconds, or the totality of the solar eclipse, via SunChipsSolarEclipse.com while supplies last, in what it’s billing as “the universe’s most limited-time offer.”
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