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Children are not only hungry in a new campaign for Wonderful halosthey are downright vindictive and borderline murderous.
That’s because his parents cleaned all the sweet mandarin oranges like candy in the house, leaving him with low blood sugar and lax supervision.
Two darkly funny commercials The wonderful agencythe company’s in-house creative division — set up a scenario in which guardians mindlessly rob Halos’ children, half-heartedly apologize and then neglect to watch their backs.
Aggrieved youths become inventive: a boy cuts the brakes on his father’s car, while a girl tells the IRS about her mother’s record keeping.
“We wanted to create an emotional connection and make people understand the brand,” Jennifer Hirano, vice president of marketing at The Wonderful Companyhe told Adweek. “We think this approach would attract parents and be playful and fun.”
The work, which marks the first TV ad for the brand in seven years and its first significant promotion in five years, launches as Halos has ramped up its national distribution and extended its growing season. The fruit, once only sold seasonally between November and May, is now available in grocers, club stores and other retailers all year round.
“We felt this was the right time to invest in a bigger campaign,” Hirano said, “because we have more availability across America.”
As a category, mandarins have become the best-selling citrus fruit in the United States, surpassing oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, tangelos and tangerines. The segment accounted for $1.9 billion in sales in 2023, up 4% year-on-year, according to Circana. Competitors to Wonderful, a retail leader, run the gamut from private label to legacy brands like Cuties, Dole and Sunkist.
A return to twisted form
“Hands Off My Halos” is a return to off-beat advertising for the brand, which dropped a memorable series called “Good choice, kid” starting in 2016. More recent marketing has been less of a storytelling vehicle and more of a product demo.
