For food and beverage companies, marketing is everything, but this current Pringles ad campaign is pretty spot on.
Since June, the canned chip company has been trying to get its supporters to help in renaming a real spider that bears a rather uncanny resemblance to its moustached mascot.
Pringles first mentioned what it calls the “Pringles Spider” on Twitter.
“Help us get the Pringles Spider officially recognized,” the company wrote, sharing a video of the spider.
The Pringles spider, actually called the kidney garden spider (scientific name Araneus mitificus), is found in South, East and Southeast Asia, according to the wildlife community website Jungle Dragon. The species is quite small, ranging in size from three to nine millimetres.
In its tweet, Pringles shared a link to its website, which includes a petition to name the “world’s first branded spider.”
The company additionally said that if the renaming campaign is successful, it will give away free Pringles to select petition signees.
It’s also possible to “adopt” a Pringles spider on the company’s website, complete with an “official” certificate of adoption.
On Instagram, Pringles released a video about the adoption campaign.
In the video, a woman said the species is “a real spider with the Pringles face on its back.”
“The Pringles Spider is the perfect ad because they can reach people where other ads can’t,” she continued.
The video then shows several seemingly home video recordings of individuals with blurred faces jumping at the sight of a spider.
“It’s the ultimate out-of-home advertising innovation, but in homes too,” the woman said. “We’re working on getting them everywhere.”
She then listed other types of ads for the spider, including gaming, music videos and movie cameos.
“The sky’s the limit,” she said in the video.
In the petition, Pringles writes that it is “calling on the arachnid community to do what’s right and recognize this very real spider as the Pringles Spider.”
As of this writing, the petition has more than 4,200 signees, with a goal of 5,000.
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