Ocean Spray’s “Cranpus” is a devilish incarnation of Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston, a mythical beast who wants to deny us all a taste of cranberry juice over Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It’s like a high-performance 2025 version of the legendary John Webster’s old Unigate ads, “Watch out there’s a Humphrey about,” in which mysterious creatures used to sneak around with red and white striped straws to steal milk from unsuspecting celebrities including Muhammad Ali, Barbara Windsor and Spike Milligan.
This new campaign is by agency Piggyback is based around St Nicholas’ folkloric alter ego Krampus, with a touch of Dr Seuss’s The Grinch thrown in.
Like the Humphrey ads before it, it puts the product centre stage and entertains nobly in the process.
MAA creative scale: 7.5
Here’s a reminder of Unigate’s (very) low-tech, high-impact 1970s campaign. The “Watch out there’s a Humphrey about” catchphrase could be heard in every school playground back then.
