🟨 Oatly: No Logos Allowed? Challenge Accepted, Paris
When you can't paint a product, paint the question...
Hey there!
Welcome to Yellow Chili Campaigns where I highlight cool stuff in marketing campaigns to help you get fresh ideas and actionable insights to sell more and grow your business.
Paris has a strict rule regarding commercial mural walls that states painted murals must be done "artfully" without the use of products or logos. Oatly, the oat milk brand, was trying to launch in Paris, and they had to find a way around this restriction.
So Oatly opted for messaging designed to quietly challenge local rules on wall murals, while mixing advertising with art in a way that made it hard to tell them apart. This involved putting just the words on the murals and adding product images via separate objects.
Some of the text-heavy murals had phrases such as "Wouldn’t this wall be much nicer with a carton of oat drink?" with delivery workers lining a truck or a pallet of boxes to give the ads new meaning.
The ads were put up around Paris (in English), but they didn’t make sense there. People in Paris don’t usually drink plant-based milk, and most café staff wouldn’t even understand what you are asking for.
But that wasn’t really the goal. Oatly knew people would take videos of the ads and share them on social media. And that’s exactly what happened, leading to a lot of attention for the brand.
ICYMI
‘Oatly in Paris’ is an example of an OOH Campaign.
The campaign went viral online and gained a lot of traction, leading to 35 million impressions of the wall murals online and 48% engagement on social media. Oatly also earned a 28% boost in sales over the previous 3-month average in France.
🍉 Action Points
Understanding (and bending) the rules creatively - Paris has this rule that murals can’t look like ads, no logos, no products, just “art.” Every city, platform, or audience has its own set of unspoken (or very spoken) rules. Rather than ignoring them, smart brands use them as a creative constraint. Always ask, “How can we do something within the rules that still screams our brand?”
Local activation, global attention - They put up English-language murals in Paris, a place where oat milk isn’t popular and where most locals wouldn’t even get the reference. Why? Because it wasn’t really about the locals. Think beyond the physical location of your campaign. What if the real audience is the internet? Oatly knew that videos of confused Parisians walking past English ads would travel far. And they were right.
Designing for social virality - The ads weren’t just about convincing Parisians to buy oat milk. They were social bait, designed to be screenshotted, shared, and meme-ified. The aesthetic and wit was made for Instagram and TikTok, not just the streets of Paris. Always ask - Would someone want to film this? Laugh at it? Send it to a friend? That’s the difference between a one-time ad and a viral moment.
P.S. If you like what you read, please move my emails to your primary inbox so you don’t miss the next issue!
🍕 Work From Anywhere(ish) Jobs
Moniepoint is hiring a Copywriter 🇳🇬
Technext is hiring a Business Development Manager 🇳🇬
Flutterwave is hiring a Sales Operations Manager 🇳🇬
Ali Abdaal is hiring a Social Media Manager 🌎
Superpath is hiring a Community Operations Manager 🇺🇸
Gradient is hiring a Freelance Strategist 🌎
Walnut is hiring a Senior Content and Brand Stretegist 🇺🇸
Content 10x is hiring a Content Writer 🇬🇧