Sour Patch Kids · VCCP · United Kingdom and Ireland · September 2026
Sour Patch Kids have introduced themselves to Britain by vandalising the poster next door. For the brand's first UK campaign, VCCP's 'Not As Sweet As They Look' shows the Kids tearing into neighbouring Oreo ads on special-build sites in London and Bristol. They look sweet. They are not. The posters make the point in about half a second.
The Challenge
Sour Patch Kids needed to introduce itself nationally to Gen Z and millennial shoppers in a UK confectionery aisle already crowded with colourful characters. Its one distinctive truth is easy to miss on a shelf: the sweets look friendly but taste sour first.
What They Did
Four special-build sites, three in London and one in Bristol, show the Kids breaking out of their own poster to wreck the Oreo poster beside it. Nationwide posters go further: a tug of war pulls a Kid in half, and a tennis match is played with a Kid's head. The work takes the brands' long-running social feud, Sour Patch Kids roasting Oreo in TikTok and Instagram comments, onto the street. It runs through September and October across the UK and Ireland, with special builds by St Marks Studio and production by Girl&Bear.
Why It Works
This feud is a family argument: Sour Patch Kids and Oreo are both Mondelez brands, so the victim is in on it and both brands get the attention. The destruction does the tasting for you. A sweet that rips its neighbour's poster apart is obviously not as sweet as it looks. Oreo costs Mondelez nothing as an enemy, and VCCP spends it well.
Creative Deviance: Visual Arrest
Sour Patch Kids show sweets committing criminal damage. The report's test is whether it's still obviously them with the logo off, and it is: the Kids' shape and colours do the branding, and the sourness lives in their behaviour rather than the copy. Because the Kids are the product, every act of mischief lands on the brand.
The Tactic
Personify the Product Truth → Turn the Product Into a Person
What to Steal
Pick a fight you own both sides of. A sibling brand makes the ideal rival: the attack costs nothing, the target can play along, and the portfolio wins twice. Before you pick an enemy, check your own house for one.
The Question That Could Get You There
If the product truth had a personality, how would it behave?
