Children aren’t just starving for a new campaign to Wonderful halosthey are downright vengeful and borderline murderous.
That’s because their parents eliminated all the sweet, candy-like tangerines from the house, leaving them with low blood sugar and lax monitoring.
Two hilarious and dark advertisements: The Marvelous Agencythe company’s in-house creative division, set up a scenario in which guardians recklessly deprive children of Halos, half-heartedly apologize and then neglect to watch their backs.
The aggrieved young people show inventiveness: a boy cuts the brake lines of his father’s car, while a girl denounces her mother’s sketchy files to the tax authorities.
“We wanted to create an emotional connection and make people understand the brand,” Jennifer Hirano, vice president of marketing at The Wonderful Companytold Adweek. “We thought this approach would appeal to parents and would be playful and fun.”
The work, which marks the first television commercial for the brand in seven years and its first significant promotional campaign in five years, launches as Halos has ramped up its national distribution and expanded its growing season. The fruit, once sold only seasonally between November and May, is now stocked year-round in grocery stores, club stores and other retailers.
“We thought it was a good time to invest in a bigger campaign,” Hirano said, “because we have more availability across America.”
As a category, tangerines have become the best-selling citrus fruit in the United States, surpassing oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, tangelos and tangerines. The segment accounted for $1.9 billion in sales in 2023, a 4% year-over-year increase, according to Circana. Competitors to sales leader Wonderful offer a range from private labels to traditional brands like Cuties, Dole and Sunkist.
A return to a twisted form
“Hands Off My Halos” is a return to offbeat advertising for the brand, which released a memorable series called “Good choice, kid.” as of 2016. More recent marketing has been less of a storytelling vehicle and more of a product demonstration.
The creative concept for “Hands Off My Halos” is grounded in consumer insight, with research showing that six in ten mothers of young children say they have been criticized about their parenting, with more than half reporting disapproval being focused on what they feed. their children, according to the CS Mott Children’s Hospital National Survey on Children’s Health.
“There is so much pressure, parents feel judged and sort of overwhelmed by all the choices and decisions they have to make every day,” Hirano said. “Insight spoke to us. »
Media buying around “Hands Off My Halos,” which is expected to run in multiple iterations through 2025, includes linear and connected TV, outdoor, digital and social. The brand tripled its spending on TikTok, using a wide-eyed mascot named Hal to hook into Gen Z with pop culture-focused posts.
In addition to the two spots, Wonderful plans pop-ups and other activations across the country, brand partnerships, and in-store presentations and samples.
