Part of a larger guide

This article is part of our comprehensive guide Content as Entertainment: The Framework That Separates Memorable Campaigns from Forgettable Ads, where we present the 4-principle framework for creating branded content audiences choose to consume.

Dunkin’ put Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, and Jason Alexander in a Super Bowl ad. Four stars. Millions in talent. Entertaining.

Pringles put a single celebrity, Sabrina Carpenter, and had her build a boyfriend out of stacked Pringles.

One is an ad with celebrities. The other is entertainment starring a product.

The difference isn’t budget. It’s model. And the data shows one model produces recall while the other produces forgetting.

Two models of celebrity advertising

The industry treats celebrity advertising as a single category. That’s a mistake. They’re two completely different models with completely different results.

Model 1: Celebrity as Image

The brand hires a star. The star appears in the spot. They’re funny, charismatic, or cool. The product appears in the final seconds. The audience remembers the star.

Characteristics:

Super Bowl 2025-2026 examples:

The result: Brand Fluency dropped to a record-low 77%. Audiences remember famous faces but not brands.

Model 2: Product as Character

The brand identifies a celebrity whose creative universe aligns with the product’s identity. The product plays a central narrative role. The celebrity amplifies the story, but the story can’t exist without the product.

Characteristics:

Example: Pringles x Sabrina Carpenter (“Pringleleo”)

Anatomy of “Product as Character”: the Pringles playbook

The “Pringleleo” ad isn’t a creative fluke. It’s a methodical execution where every production decision reinforces the model.

The product as narrative engine

In “Pringleleo,” the product serves three simultaneous narrative functions:

1. Mr. P as plot catalyst. Pringles’ mascot isn’t decoration. He’s the character who launches the action: “Build him.” Without Mr. P, there’s no inciting incident. Without an inciting incident, there’s no story. The brand mascot has more narrative weight than the celebrity at the start of the spot.

2. The stackable shape as central mechanic. The reason Carpenter can build a boyfriend is that Pringles stack. That physical characteristic of the product — which in any other ad would be an irrelevant technical detail — becomes the narrative mechanic that holds the entire concept together. You can’t do this with Doritos, Lay’s, or any other snack.

3. The can as visual anchor. The Pringles can appears in multiple scenes as a recurring visual element. Not as forced product placement. As a natural part of the story of a woman who builds, lives with, and eventually loses her Pringles boyfriend.

The result: impossible to remember the narrative without remembering the product. Recall is an inevitable side effect of understanding the story.

The production decisions that made it work

Every seemingly “creative” decision was a strategic one:

Carpenter’s directors, not the agency’s directors. BBDO hired Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia (Iconoclast), the directors of Carpenter’s “Manchild” music video. This wasn’t courtesy. It was strategy: directors who already had creative shorthand with the star could capture her authentic voice in a two-day shoot.

Shot on film, not digital. A first for the Pringles brand. The decision to shoot on film stock wasn’t nostalgia. It was because the retro aesthetic, influenced by the French New Wave, is Carpenter’s personal aesthetic. Shooting digital would have created a visual dissonance between the star and the spot.

Carpenter chose her own teaser. She was presented with multiple teaser concepts. She chose the “He loves me, he loves me not” Pringles-petal clip. It matched the creative team’s top pick. But the act of giving her the decision ensured the output felt genuinely hers.

Dialogue “in her own voice.” The script wasn’t written and handed to Carpenter to read. It was written to sound like she talks. The difference is subtle but audiences detect it: dialogue that sounds like her versus dialogue that sounds like a copywriter.

Dan Kelly, BBDO’s Executive Creative Director: “Her name came up immediately — not only because she’s a wildly talented megastar (and a single one, at that), but mostly because of her incredibly unique personality and subversive sense of humor.”

The cost-effectiveness argument

The industry spends as if more celebrities = better results. The data says the opposite.

The economics of ensemble casts

The average cost per celebrity in these ensemble ads ranges from several hundred thousand to millions of dollars per person. Multiply by 3-4 celebrities per spot, add production, add $7-10M in airtime, and you’re looking at $15-20M+ campaigns that audiences can’t associate with your brand.

The economics of deep integration

Pringles used one celebrity. The total campaign (production + talent + airtime) likely cost between $12 and $15 million according to industry estimates.

Pre-launch results:

The previous Pringles campaign generated the highest rate of brand Google searches the day after the game in five years. One integrated celebrity. Product as character. Superior results.

The formula

Fewer celebrities + deeper integration + product as character = better recall, better engagement, better ROI

It’s not counterintuitive. It’s common sense backed by data. But the industry keeps doing the opposite because the ensemble model sells better in boardrooms.

How to build your own “product as character” campaign

You don’t need a Super Bowl or Sabrina Carpenter. You need to apply the model at your scale.

Step 1: Identify what makes your product narratively unique

What characteristic of your product can become a narrative mechanic? For Pringles it was stackability. For your brand it could be:

If you can’t identify what makes your product narratively unique, you have a positioning problem to solve before producing content.

Step 2: Find creators with authentic alignment

Don’t look for the most famous. Look for the one who already speaks your brand’s language:

Carpenter tweeted about Pringles in 2017. Nine years before the campaign. That’s authentic alignment.

Step 3: Give the product an active role, not a cameo

In every piece of content, ask yourself: if I remove my product from this story, does the story collapse? If the answer is no, your product is a prop. Redesign until it’s a character.

Step 4: Cede creative control (strategically)

Pringles let Carpenter choose her teaser, let her directors direct, let the dialogue sound like her. Ceding creative control doesn’t mean losing brand control. It means the output feels authentic instead of corporate.

Step 5: Measure recall, not just reach

After every campaign, ask: does the audience remember which brand paid for this? If you generated millions of views but nobody remembers your brand, you paid for other people’s entertainment.

Does your product appear in your content or IS it your content?

If you can remove your brand from your content and the content works the same, your product is a prop, not a character. At Mazkara Studio we integrate your product into the narrative so recall is automatic. Get your free consultation to design your product-as-character strategy.

Related resources:

Does your content work the same if you remove your brand? That’s a problem. At Mazkara Studio we integrate your product into the narrative. Get your free consultation →