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On one side of the room, there’s a bare folding table with a few sad offerings: a solitary glass of milk and a nondescript plate of cookies.
On the other, there’s an elaborate holiday display with Christmas trees, glowing candles, crystal goblets, and enough sweet treats to cause a diabetic coma.
Which is more appealing? Or more to the point, which might set off a stampede of sampling when presented to a group of 31 professional Santas?
Oatly, continuing its cheeky assault on Big Dairy, created the scenario for its holiday ad campaign. While shamelessly stacking the deck in favor of a beautiful spread of oat milk and French pastries, the plant-powered brand also aimed to make a point about an antiquated tradition.
Why, in fact, do many Americans leave (cow’s) milk and cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve? As a modernized reward for all the gift-dispersing hard work—or if Santa is lactose intolerant or sustainably-minded—the brand is encouraging people to substitute Oatly and croquembouche instead.
The stunt continues Oatly’s practice of “calling out the ubiquity and antiquity of cow’s milk in popular culture,” according to Eric Routenberg, creative director of Oatly North America. And anyway, “has anyone ever asked Santa what he’d want us to leave out for him? Cut to us gathering 31 Santas in a hotel ballroom in New Jersey for an, um, ‘official survey.’”
A casting call went out in the tri-state area to more than 50 professional Saint Nicks, “and the response was overwhelming,” Routenberg told ADWEEK, “which we didn’t expect, because 28 days away from the big night, you’d think these guys would be stuck in delivery logistics planning meetings all day.”
A bit of historical trivia: the milk-and-cookies trend reportedly dates back to the 1930s in the U.S., when Depression-era folks wanted to teach their kids to be charitable and grateful. But it may also borrow from old European practices of offering gifts to mystical figures.
And a bit of food trivia: croquembouche, French for “crunch in the mouth,” is a cone-shaped tower of cream puffs, covered in caramel, that resembles a Christmas tree.
The hero 60-second video, from Oatly’s internal creative team called the Department of Mind Control, came up with “totally unscientific and completely biased results.” Per the brand, 96.774% of the assembled Saint Nicks preferred Oatly and croquembouche, while only one went for the old-school milk and cookies.