Takis: Listen to the Haters, 1

Notoriously spicy Mexican tortilla chip brand Takis launched in the UK last night (Thursday 23 September) with a campaign from Publicis•Poke that delivered a fiery warning about the snack’s spice levels, going so far as to explicitly say: Don’t Eat Takis. Takis is known across the pond (and in 22 countries worldwide) for its spicy, intense flavour. It is also a brand known for its cheeky, irreverent attitude and its arrival in the UK was no different, kicking off its launch campaign with a projection on the Houses of Parliament, supporting the Government with a cheeky nod to the debate that’s happening within the walls of Westminster around snack consumption (and advertising). Takis is no stranger to kickstarting some spicy conversations in a way that is original, spirited and authentic to its brand. In addition to the Parliament projection, Takis will be utilising digital OOH across the city in locations including Victoria Park, Brick Lane, Blackfriars and Shoreditch High Street, with executions claiming that Takis are ‘none of your five a day’, ‘listen to the haters’ and blurring out the Takis product, with ‘caution: explicit content’, alongside a timer counting down to 9pm, when the full product image is revealed. Piggybacking on the fact that it is a brand that has traditionally divided public opinion, as part of the UK launch Takis has taken its ‘listen to the haters’ approach one step further, featuring customers' responses and reactions to the fiery snacks across additional OOH sites in London, including tweets such as “I’m never ever ever ever ever eating Takis again” and “my mouth is on fiiiiiiirrreeeeee”. As part of the wider launch campaign, Takis will be partnering with Snapchat to create Snap ads, as well as TikTok and a media partnership with LADbible. Over the course of the coming months, content from the campaign will be repurposed into social media content, to keep the cheeky message to not eat Takis going in the UK.