The inventor of the Pringles can, Fredric Baur, was buried in one. This is the kind of brand lore that most snack marketers would quietly avoid mentioning, or perhaps acknowledge with a knowing smile at industry conferences before moving on to discuss flavor extensions.
BBDO New York and Weber Shandwick, working on behalf of Mars Snacking North America, have chosen the opposite approach. The agencies have created a Halloween campaign that invites one devoted fan to win a custom Pringles-shaped urn, along with 200 years' worth of the stackable crisps — presumably for distribution to descendants, though the mechanics of posthumous snack allocation were not specified in the announcement.
The launch film stars Dan Madden, a funeral director who has built a following on TikTok under the handle @DanTheFuneralMan, which suggests either that the platform has matured considerably or that death has become more casual. (Perhaps both.)
"From the moment we heard about the inventor being buried in his can, we knew we had to do something crazy with it," said Dan Kelly, executive creative director at BBDO New York. Mr. Kelly described the brand history as "a weird and glorious gift," which is one way to characterize a burial anecdote.
Allyson Hoar, executive creative director at Weber Shandwick, said the story had been "on the agency's radar for a long time," adding that the team wanted to give fans "the chance to declare their undying love for Pringles." The choice of adjective appeared to be intentional.
Mauricio Jenkins, who holds the title of salty snacks brand and content lead at Mars Snacking North America, said the campaign was designed with Generation Z's "taste for absurdist storytelling" in mind.
Entrants who do not win the urn may download a "seal of commitment" to post on social media, which is a somewhat smaller pledge than eternal interment but perhaps more practical for most households.
Original story published in campaignlive.com: "Pringles offers fans eternity in a can for Halloween | Campaign US"