- Cheetos is using the disembodied hand character Thing as its hook for its tie-in for the second season of Netflix’s “Wednesday.”
- The brand, known for leaving its cheese-flavored powder on people’s fingers as they eat the product, is introducing a limited-edition product, “Flamin’ Hot Fiery Skulls,” that it suggests was created by the character.
- The tie-in included a takeover of Times Square in New York in which the character “escaped” from an enormous LED Cheetos billboard, tampered with some real billboards of brands including Gatorade x F1 and Spotify and then ventured out into the real world to leave a trail of cheese-dust fingerprints and messages throughout the area.
The campaign will also include a traditional commercial that depicts Thing auditioning to become Cheetos’ official brand spokesperson. (His expressions of excitement and joy at trying the product are basically the same: holding up a Cheeto with cheese-dust encrusted fingers.) The brand has also created social ads that depict people discovering Cheetos bags in mysterious places (like high up on a hotel window sill) only to find it’s Thing up to mischief.
“Stirring up a little trouble is what our annual Cheetos fingertip sponsorships are all about – and this year, we’re turning up the mischief with the ultimate partner in crime, Wednesday’s Thing,” said Tina Mahal, senior vice president of marketing at PepsiCo Foods U.S. “Cheetos fans love a good plot twist, and since many of them see themselves as Wednesday-style outcasts, we knew this chaotic, funny, and perfectly unexpected collab would be a hit just in time for season two.”
