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Chattanooga Bakery’s snack cake brand MoonPie has spent years trolling the sun on Twitter, and that celestial rivalry ramps up this summer through a campaign from agency of record Tombras.
As the centerpiece of the program, the legacy sweet treat company has launched MoonPie Sun Bad SPF 50 sunscreen for $4.99, available at MoonPie’s four retail locations and through moonpie.com. The limited-run product dropped on June 21, the Summer Solstice.
To promote the marshmallow-scented sunscreen, Tombras created a 65-second video in the style of a ‘90s commercial that was shot at a pool in Nashville, Tenn. It shows a kid complaining that the sun is melting his MoonPies before a narrator grabs the attention of the crowd asking “Are you done with the sun? Then you need MoonPie Sun Bad sunscreen.”
Bottles of sunscreen magically appear in the family’s hands and a woman is shown reading a newspaper informing her that the sun will destroy the earth in 7.5 billion years. The jingle playing over scenes of people generously lathering themselves with the liquid has lyrics that include: “The sun’s going to swallow the Earth someday, so MoonPie decided to step in the way.”
The spot encourages users to “Say SPFU to the sun,” which is portrayed as having menacing red eyes and sharp teeth. And while the product might smell yummy, it’s not edible, according to the video.
The moon is the real star
“Sun Bad sunscreen is the perfect build and complement to our cheeky, indignant social media attitude towards the sun,” Tory Johnson, Chattanooga Bakery vice president sales and marketing, said in a statement. “When Tombras approached us with the idea, it was a no brainer. We hope everyone will lather up with the marshmallow-scented sunblock while snacking on a delicious MoonPie.”
Tombras—which has worked with the 100-year-old, family-owned company since 2015—calls MoonPie “the ultimate challenger brand.” The agency has been stoking its faux rivalry with the sun for years.
“We’re giving consumers what they want with MoonPie Sun Bad,” Dooley Tombras, president, said in a statement. “Also, we had great success hacking the eclipse before so it was a natural move for us to hijack the summer solstice.”
MoonPie shared the video on its Twitter and Instagram accounts, which link to a campaign page explaining why “the Sun is a big bully whose ultimate goal is to destroy us all” and that the moon is better because “there is no such thing as moon burn.”
