Making Mischief With Sour Patch Kids

Being just the right amount of naughty is harder than it looks. Sour Patch Kids' new brand platform Not As Sweet As They Look turns trouble into fun, bringing the brand's well-known mayhem on social media to outdoor advertising. 

The simple yet graphic creative work demands a second look, as what appears sweet on the outside turns into an unexpected side of sourness, just like the sweets themselves. One execution captures their mischief as they physically rip down the neighboring Oreo poster turning their viral online rivalry into physical damage. 

Designed to connect with its online fandom, the campaign brings the troublesome excitement behind the screen into a visual experience, encouraging a chance for a generation to step away from the internet and share fun in the real moment. 

Associate creative directors Adam Sears and Ben Evans talk about making the characters' playful personalities stand-out and challenge the expectations of what’s known and what’s to come of the brand.

What was the initial brief that led to the ‘Not As Sweet As They Look’ campaign?

Adam: Tell people Sour Patch Kids are sweet but also have a sour side. And while you’re at it, make them famous. How good is that? It’s not often you get a brief that’s so singular, and demands work that punches through all the advertising guff. Thanks, Jack McCormack.

Why aim to make the brand more mischievous? How does it help its positioning?

Ben: The great thing about the sweets being little characters is we could use their personality to tell the story. That’s what makes them stand out from every other sour sweet on the shelf. But we can’t take all the credit for making them mischievous. They’ve always been that way. Check their socials, they’re great. Clearly, there are some very funny, and slightly unhinged, people at Sour Patch Kids social headquarters. We mean that in the best possible way.

What do you believe “mischief” means to Gen Z and Millennials today, and how did that shape the creative? Was there a line you couldn’t cross?

Adam: Mischief is finding that line and giving it a good old wiggle. The line seems to change from one generation to the next, but we try to find it on every brief. That’s where the fun is. It’s why we got into advertising. Mischief for a more corporate brand might just be writing a playful headline. For Sour Patch Kids, it was flirting with the line between being naughty and nasty. They’re troublemakers, not villains, after all.

Sometimes you go too far. But that’s where the smarter, more sensible people come in and tell you to stop being silly and slowly guide you back over the line. A bit like a sober friend walking their drunk friend, who’s having a bit too much fun, to a taxi home. We never think they’re right at the time. But they probably are.

How important was the physical scale of OOH, as well as the simplicity in the message, to making the humour work? How did you plan each poster to work in situ?

Ben: Simplicity was super important. We went through so many scamps that were funny in conversation, but were too complicated to get across on a single poster. If we felt the need to use multiple frames, or explain why it was funny, well, we all know what that means for a joke. We wanted to use outdoor as more than just a big rectangular canvas. Once you treat the product as characters, the physical world around the poster becomes something they can interact with.

Was taking the Sour Patch Kids and Oreo feud from social media into the real world always part of the initial idea, or did the special-build OOH come later?

Adam: Honestly, it started as a simpler thought. “What if the Sour Patch Kids tore down another billboard? That’d be pretty funny, right?” Later down the line, we said something to each other, like, “Sour Patch Kids and Oreo don’t get on in social, wouldn’t it be smart if they tore down an Oreo poster? Yeah, cool. Let’s pretend we meant it that way from the start.” And, now I’ve ruined it.

Yes, it was always part of the initial idea.

What did you feel you had to establish about Sour Patch Kids with this campaign?

Ben: What everyone who follows them on social already knows about them. They might look sweet, but they’re unhinged, sour little creatures. We wanted to show off their slightly problematic but loveable personalities to the nation.

Adam: In our heads, success would be someone looking up at what seemed like a cute, colourful confectionery ad, doing a double take, stopping, and realising it’s anything but a cute, colourful confectionery ad. Then smiling. Or giggling. Or being a bit shocked and scuttling off. We just wanted people to remember it. Because the next time they’re standing in a supermarket confectionery aisle, they might just pick up a pack.

What has VCCP brought to Sour Patch Kids that help unlock the personality of the brand?

Ben: Big, silly ideas, crafted to within an inch of their lives. Literally.

Where can you see Not As Sweet As They Look evolving in the future?

Adam: More mischief.