For food and beverage companies, marketing is everything, but this current ad campaign for Pringles is pretty on point.
Since June, the canned chip company has been trying to get its supporters to help rename a real spider that bears a rather uncanny resemblance to its whiskered pet.
Pringles first mentioned what it calls the “Pringles Spider” on Twitter.
“Help us get Pringles Spider officially recognized,” the company wrote, sharing a video of the spider.
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The Pringles spider, actually called the kidney garden spider (scientific name Araneus mitificus), is found in South, East, and Southeast Asia, according to the wildlife community website Jungle Dragon. The species is quite small, ranging in size from three to nine millimeters.
In his tweet, Pringles shared a link to his website, which includes a petition to name the “world’s first branded spider.”
The company also said that if the name change campaign is successful, it will give away free Pringles to select petition signers.
It is also possible to “adopt” a Pringles spider on the company’s website, along with an “official” certificate of adoption.
On Instagram, Pringles released a video about the adoption campaign.
In the video, a woman said the species is “a real spider with a Pringles face on its back.”
“The Pringles Spider is the perfect ad because it can reach people where other ads can’t,” he continued.
The video then shows several apparently homemade video recordings of people with blurred faces jumping at the sight of a spider.
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“It is the maximum innovation in outdoor advertising, but also in homes,” said the woman. “We are working to get them everywhere.”
He then listed other types of advertisements for the spider, including games, music videos, and movie cameos.
“The sky is the limit,” he said in the video.
In the petition, Pringles writes that it is “asking the arachnid community to do the right thing and make this spider as real as the Pringles spider.”
As of this writing, the petition has more than 4,200 signatories, with a goal of 5,000.
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