Jif dips into ‘Succession’ to promote peanut butter, chocolate merger

Dive Brief:

Jif today (June 4) debuted "The Merger," a campaign that promotes the brand's new peanut butter and chocolate-flavored spread, according to details shared with Marketing Dive. The effort was created by PSOne and creatively led by BBH USA.
The latest iteration of the brand's “That Jif’ing Good” platform revolves around a fictional deal between The Peanut Butter Group and Chocolatey Corp., filmed in the style of "Succession." Actor J. Smith-Cameron, who featured as Gerri in the HBO hit, stars as the CEO of the Peanut Butter Group in a 90-second short film.
The pop culture-focused campaign also includes a full-page print ad styled like a press release and branded content via the New York Times, a landing page for the fictional PBC Inc. and ads that will run nationally across TV, video, radio and social channels.

Dive Insight:

Jif's latest iteration of its “That Jif’ing Good” platform sees the J.M. Smucker brand tapping into the style and fandom around one of the biggest TV hits in recent memory, HBO's "Succession," to promote its largest flavor innovation in more than a decade: the "merger" of peanut butter and chocolate in its new spread.

At the center of the campaign is a 90-second short film styled after the show, from the piano-and-beats soundtrack to shots of power brokers in offices, at lunches and on cable news. Along with a Jim Cramer-esque figure and an also-ran banana business, the video features Smith-Cameron, who starred as Gerri in the show, as the head of the the Peanut Butter Group who helps close and takes credit for what is billed as “The Merger America Craved.”

Beyond the short film and ads that will run across a variety of channels, Jif is hoping to drum up attention around the product with activations intended to give the merger a hint of verisimilitude. The campaign will be featured in a full-print ad in the New York Times, as well as in a branded content article written from the perspective of a business reporter covering the merger. Jif also created a landing page for the fictional company featuring a mission statement, executive biographies and a company timeline.

“We’re constantly looking for new corners of culture for Jif to hack. And when we got the brief about two titans of taste combining to create Jif Peanut Butter and Chocolate Flavored Spread, it allowed us to insert ourselves into the most unexpected corner yet: Big business mergers,” said Alan Wilson, senior vice president and group creative director at BBH USA, in a statement.

First launched in 2019, the “That Jif’ing Good” platform has helped shift the brand's marketing from "what choosy moms choose" to campaigns that tap into hip-hop and internet culture. The platform is a key example of the work PSOne, a bespoke Publicis Groupe unit that handles Jif parent J.M. Smucker's creative, data and media functions, has done to modernize an iconic — if "dusty" — brand.

The new spread is intended to appeal to a young, multicultural market by tapping into the large percentage (72%) of American consumers who claim chocolate lifts their moods, per the brand. The product contains 50% less sugar than the leading hazelnut spread with cocoa, a likely shot at competitor Ferrero's Nutella brand, per press details.