Nutter Butter is Serving Gen Z Humor Like a Pro
Written by Sophia Doiron
Imagine the strangest ad you've ever seen. Now, make it even weirder. That’s Nutter Butter. The brand, known for its peanut butter sandwich cookies, embraces the bizarre and unnerving presence on TikTok, leaning into the weirdness that resonates with today’s internet culture led by Gen Z. Nutter Butter blends quirky humor with creepy, unsettling imagery, defying the cookie category’s traditional branding.
Meet the Nutter Butter marketing strategy: animated cookies caught in the most unsettling situations you’ve ever seen. Picture dark, moody scenes where they moved strangely, backed by eerie sound effects and glitchy audio bites that keep you on edge. It’s internet surrealism at its finest, like the kind of offbeat, abstract memes that Gen Z can’t stop scrolling through at 3 a.m.
Around late September this year, a TikTok blew up when a user asked the big question: “Is Nutter Butter okay?” The response? Let’s just say it was the kind of unhinged answer that had the internet howling. The ad opens with a single Nutter Butter cookie asking, “Are we ok?” followed by a hesitant, “Depends,” all set to eerie sound effects. Suddenly, upbeat music plays, and two more Nutter Butters zoom onto the screen, chanting “Yes” repeatedly. This unusual content doesn’t exactly scream “cookie commercial.” But hey, it keeps people watching, talking and coming back for more. The genius of the marketing strategy lies in its unpredictability and the brand’s willingness to embrace the internet’s strange humor. The marketing team committed to the bit, which paid off a year later. Scroll back to early 2023 on the brand’s social media, and you’ll spot the turning point: a shift from everyday posts to the cryptic weirdness that currently defines them.
This marketing approach was curated based on insight into TikTok's random, chaotic nature and trend culture. TikTok thrives on viral content that embraces the weird or nonsensical but yet relatable humor. Gen Z increasingly prefers brands that are down-to-earth and don’t take themselves too seriously. Nutter Butter’s strategy reflects an awareness of this shift in consumer behavior and content consumption, where straightforward advertising no longer cuts through the noise. And the numbers prove this, showing Nutter Butter doubling its followers and gaining millions of views on Tiktok. But, it doesn’t just stop at social analytics. Data from Stackline, shows a bump in sales that began when they started this social media rebrand. Shoppers bought more than 5,000 Nutter Butter products in June on Amazon, up 190% compared to the first week of January. Nutter Butter also rose to the top of its category as the 6th most popular U.S. cookie brand.
Absurdist marketing strategies like this can be risky because there is always potential for the audience to feel more unsettled than engaged. When brands try to fit Gen Z’s tone of voice, it can often appear forced and ingenuine. Therefore, brands need to walk a fine line when leaning into the ever-evolving language of Gen Z. But Nutter Butter’s wild approach? It’s hitting just right — audiences are loving the clever, quirky vibe that fits in with TikTok’s brand of playful weirdness.
Brands like Mountain Dew and Old Spice have already mastered the art of absurd humor, turning weirdness into wildly memorable campaigns that stick with you long after the ad’s over. Old Spice’s commercials, for instance, featured nonsensical yet engaging visuals, such as a man riding a horse through surreal landscapes, creating excitement around their product. The 2010 “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign combined randomness, humor, and fast-paced editing to generate viral success. Old Spice not only gained a 125% uptake in sales and over 10 million views in 2 months, the brand completely changed the game for humorous advertising.
Mountain Dew also knows how to go all-in on absurdity, with catholic, over-the-top humor front and center. Case in point: the infamous “PuppyMonkeyBaby” Super Bowl ad — a strange mashup of puppy, monkey, and baby that’s burned into our brains forever. The sheer randomness of the ad made it a viral sensation, sparking endless conversation and cementing its place in modern ad history. Nutter Butter, though, is taking absurdist marketing a step further and fully embracing internet meme culture to hook Gen Z with a distinctly online, offbeat flavor.
Nutter Butter’s dive into absurdist TikTok territory is a bold, calculated risk — and it’s paying off big time. The brand has found a way to stand out in the crowded social media landscape by leaning into the unexpected. By creating content that is far from cookie-cutter, Nutter Butter ensures that their videos are not just seen, but remembered and shared. The company’s social media strategy dives headfirst into chaotic, meme-driven randomness, capturing Gen Z’s attention with a distinct edge. While other brands are exploring similar territory, Nutter Butter’s unapologetically offbeat, memorable approach sets it apart, creating a standout identity in the sea of trendy marketing.
https://www.today.com/food/trends/nutter-butter-creepy-tiktok-account-rcna171563
https://www.delish.com/food-news/a62390900/nutter-butter-unhinged-tiktok/