Ogilvy & Mather had a problem: sales of square Shredded Wheat cereal had gone flat. Nobody wanted to eat the same cereal a different way, and changing the recipe wasn’t really an option – it’s shredded wheat, there’s only so much you can do.
So they didn’t touch the product. They just… turned it 45 degrees and called it the Diamond Shreddie.
Then they leaned all the way in. Fake focus groups where people swore the diamond tasted crispier. “Combo packs” with both shapes, in case you couldn’t decide. The whole campaign had a straight face while winking at you the entire time.
It shouldn’t have worked. It did — market share jumped 18% in the first month.
Canadian YouTuber Tod Maffin does a great recap of this hit ad campaign here. Enjoy!
Here’s what I think actually landed:
They let the audience in on the joke instead of trying to fool them. Everyone knew it was the same cereal. That was the point.
It also poked fun at every other brand screaming “NEW AND IMPROVED” over some minor tweak — while doing the exact same thing, on purpose, badly.
And it’s a good reminder that “innovation” doesn’t always mean building something new. Sometimes it just means finding a new way to talk about what you’ve already got.
Humour like this isn’t really about getting a laugh. It’s a shortcut to trust — when a brand doesn’t take itself too seriously, you believe it a little more.