Pringles Will Bury Its Biggest Fan in a Giant Can
Updated: 1 day ago
Pringles' Once You Drop Halloween stunt, launched 13 October 2026, lets fans sign a Last Will and Taste-Ament to be buried in a can-shaped urn, winning a 200-year Pringles supply.
What happened
On 13 October 2026, Pringles launched Once You Drop, a Halloween stunt that leans hard into the macabre. Fans sign a mock legal document called a Last Will and Taste-Ament for the chance to be buried in a can-shaped urn, complete with a session alongside a real funeral director.
The grand prize is suitably absurd: a 200-year supply of Pringles. The work comes from BBDO New York and Weber Shandwick, and lands as the brand sits inside the newly expanded Mars Snacking portfolio, giving it a fresh owner to impress.
Everything about the execution is built to be talked about, from the deadpan legal framing to the funeral director, which turns a giveaway into a small piece of theatre people want to describe to a friend.
Why it matters
Snacking is a low-interest, high-frequency category, which means attention is the scarce resource, not distribution. A deliberately ridiculous, slightly dark premise is engineered to be screenshotted and argued about, buying earned reach that straight product advertising almost never generates.
There is also a brand-architecture signal. As Pringles settles under Mars Snacking, a bold, culturally loud stunt reasserts that the brand still has its own distinctive personality and is not about to be flattened into a portfolio line item managed for efficiency.
And it reinforces a long-running brand idea. Pringles has always traded on the can and the compulsion to keep eating, so a campaign that literally turns the can into an urn is absurd on the surface but perfectly on-brand underneath.
The commitment-device framework
The clever mechanic is the Last Will and Taste-Ament itself. Dressing a prize entry as a signed, mock-legal commitment turns a passive giveaway into a performative act of brand loyalty, exactly the kind of participation people want to show their friends and followers.
A 200-year supply is a figure designed to be shared, not redeemed. It is comically beyond any real appetite, which is the point: the absurd number does the storytelling, and the funeral director detail gives journalists and creators a concrete, quotable hook to build coverage around.
That is the difference between a promotion and a stunt. A promotion offers value and hopes for sales; a stunt offers a story and earns attention, and Pringles has clearly decided that attention is the harder thing to buy in its category.
What businesses should do
Low-interest categories should stop asking how to describe the product and start asking what would be worth filming. A stunt earns its keep when the premise itself is the share, not the tagline, and when it can live and mutate across social long after launch day.
Just govern the risk properly. A dark comedic idea needs clear opt-in, obvious parody framing and a PR partner on hand, which is exactly why Pringles paired a creative agency with Weber Shandwick rather than letting the joke run unmanaged and risk a backlash.
Anchor the absurdity to a brand truth. The 200-year supply and the can-urn only work because they amplify what Pringles already stands for, so before you chase shock value, check that the idea makes people remember you rather than just the joke. The test is simple: a month later, can people name the brand behind the stunt, or only the stunt itself? If it is only the stunt, the budget bought fame for the gag and precisely nothing for you, which is the most common way a clever stunt quietly wastes its money.
Quick FAQ
What is the prize?
The winner receives a 200-year supply of Pringles, plus the central experience of the stunt: the chance to be buried in a can-shaped urn with a real funeral director involved.
Who made the campaign?
Once You Drop was created by BBDO New York with PR agency Weber Shandwick, for a Pringles brand that now sits within the Mars Snacking portfolio.
Snacking lives or dies on attention, and Pringles just bought a fortnight of it for the price of one brilliantly stupid idea. Turning a prize entry into a signed Last Will and Taste-Ament is the real craft here. It makes the fan perform their loyalty, and that is what people actually share. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
In low-interest categories, make the premise itself worth sharing, not just the product claim.
What would your brand do that is bold enough for people to film without being asked?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Ad Age, Adweek, Marketing Dive
Related reading
Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
