Adweek: MoonPie Finally Has a National Super Bowl Ad, But Only at Gas Stations

The snack cake brand and agency Tombras teamed up with GSTV

By David Cohen | Adweek

This year’s Super Bowl ad from MoonPie was a real gas because, other than Twitter, the only place where they can be viewed is the gas station.

Chattanooga Bakery’s snack cake brand teamed up with agency of record Tombras on the next step in its #TheBigThing campaign, bringing its Big Game ad to screens on fuel pumps at gas stations worldwide via GSTV.

MoonPie and Tombras kicked off #TheBigThing in 2018, publishing nine absurd scripts for television spots that they would have produced and aired if the budget permitted.

The brand and the agency took things one step further last year, actually filming spots, although they only ran online.

This year, they took #TheBigThing national, or at least to thousands of screens at gas stations nationally via GSTV, which said its video network reaches one out of three Americans every month at over 22,000 fuel retailers across the country.

The video had nearly 155,000 views at the time of this post, and MoonPie said that according to the USA Today Ad Meter, that total topped those of brands including Little Caesars, Verizon, Tide, Reese’s, Toyota,  Snickers, Procter & Gamble, Porsche, Disney’s Mulan and Rocket Mortgage.

MoonPie added that it has tallied roughly 4.3 million organic impressions thus far, and it shared some positive reaction to its tweets.

Tombras president Dooley Tombras said in a release, “This would seem like a crazy idea for most brands, but it’s perfect for MoonPie because it’s an ‘Outta This World’ creative idea and media placement. Millions of consumers stop by gas station convenience stores on their way to parties or to stock up for their own gatherings. So, not only did we finally make a TV spot for MoonPie, but we did it while making sure we were in the right place at the right time with a spot worthy of advertising’s biggest day.”

Tombras chief creative officer Jeff Benjamin added, “Living in New York City for nine years where they have these baby gas stations, it had been a while since I’d been to a real, American fuel stop. The innovation that’s taken place fueled our thinking and made GSTV the perfect ‘Outta This World’ platform for our trilogy. What a fun way to keep this campaign running. I’m pumped.”

And GSTV president and CEO Sean McCaffrey said, “When Tombras approached us, we immediately realized their idea was a stroke of genius—and not just because of the spot’s creative vision. Brands today know that it’s increasingly difficult to find moments when consumer attention is truly focused, so with an unavoidably attention-grabbing spot and a media buy that leverages the full scale and capabilities of GSTV, it’s the perfect way to stand out.”