Wonderful Pistachios is expanding its partnership with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen into a second year with a new ad campaign debuting Oct. 12 during Monday Night Football, when Allen’s Bills play the Los Angeles Rams.
The commercials extend the humor of the brand’s “The Don’t Hold Back Snack” campaign while highlighting what makes the partnership unusual in celebrity CPG marketing: Allen’s family owns a farm that grows pistachios sold to Wonderful Pistachios. In “Tackle Sled,” a teammate stuffs himself inside a training sled to keep himself from snacking; in “Resistance Bands,” another straps himself to a wall to stay away from a bag of pistachios. In both, Allen explains there is no reason to hold back.
“I’m excited to be back with Wonderful Pistachios for another year because they keep finding new ways to have fun with the farmer side of my life,” Allen said. “I get to eat pistachios, make some funny commercials and remind people I actually know my way around a pistachio orchard.”
“While Josh Allen is known to most as an NFL superstar and MVP quarterback, at Wonderful Pistachios we also celebrate his work off the field, as a pistachio farmer,” said Michael Perdigao, president of The Wonderful Agency, which developed the spots in-house. “Because as the on-screen disclosure in these ads say, ‘Seriously, Josh Allen really owns a pistachio farm.'”
The TV launch anchors an integrated campaign running through the football season, with behind-the-scenes social content, giveaways on the brand’s Instagram featuring signed jerseys, footballs and a one-of-a-kind bobblehead depicting Allen on a tractor, and launch-night activations at select Bills Backers bars in cities including New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and Rochester, New York, where fans can receive complimentary bags of pistachios.
For retailers, the campaign supports product already in stores: a limited-edition Josh Allen package of the brand’s 16-ounce Roasted & Salted In-Shell Pistachios launched earlier this season. The partnership also includes the renewed Josh Allen Scholarship supporting students in Allen’s hometown of Firebaugh, California, in the heart of the Central Valley pistachio growing region, with up to $12,000 over four years of college.
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