One year after its initial debut, the Reese’s Oreo mash-up has generated over $188 million in retail sales and successfully introduced new, younger consumers to the Reese’s franchise. To celebrate the product’s first anniversary and its permanent addition to the portfolio, The Hershey Company partnered with Juxtapose Studio to launch a nostalgia-driven campaign starring Lindsay Lohan and Amy Sedaris, with commercial direction from Patricia Arquette.
Set at the fictional “Reese’s Twin Retreat,” the spot references Lohan’s dual role in The Parent Trap by placing her in the position of a therapist resolving differences between bickering twins. By integrating the consumer-led origin of pairing peanut butter cups and sandwich cookies directly into the narrative, the creative highlights fan demand without relying on heavy voiceover commentary.
Designed to appeal to both Gen Z and Millennial demographics, the campaign leverages ’90s and ’00s cultural callbacks, heavy celebrity involvement, and social-first distribution to maintain consumer engagement and drive ongoing retail performance.
Here’s what iSpot’s Creative Assessment platform revealed on actual viewer response to the campaign.
The Details:
- The :30 “You Asked, Fate Answered” delivered the strongest overall response (as measured by Ace Score) of the three executions in the Reese’s Oreo campaign, landing +43 pts above the one-year candy & gum norm:
- As expected, the celebrity characters were cited as the Single Best Thing about the spot at nearly twice the rate of the average candy & gum ad (20% vs 11% norm). The product itself also shone, with a 31% SBT rating compared to the category benchmark of 27%.
- The ad earned above-norm breakthrough (Attention and Likeability) helped by the cast, but the standout executional element was Information delivery (+112 pts above average), which ranked in the 97th percentile for the category.
- Desire and Change were also strengths for “You Asked, Fate Answered” (+46 pts and +69 pts above norm, respectively), but the emotional dial readings —Love It, Funny, Curiosity— stayed in the ‘notice’ range rather than high intensity. The character recognition and the product itself carried this spot’s success.
- 87% recalled the Reese’s brand unaided after a single view, with 45% supplying the full Reese’s Oreo product name. However, this creative did not spur an above-norm purchase/visit intent; it did encourage a normative 63% to positive consideration.
- The spot resonated best with 18-35’s, followed by those 50+ while meeting candy & gum norms among viewers 36-49.
- As expected, the celebrity characters were cited as the Single Best Thing about the spot at nearly twice the rate of the average candy & gum ad (20% vs 11% norm). The product itself also shone, with a 31% SBT rating compared to the category benchmark of 27%.
- Emotional profiling across the three creative executions reveals the Love It response the brand was expecting, with the humor consistent across all three as well, along with some incredulity:
- Viewer sentiment on the :30 “You Asked, Fate Answered” reveals that the Lindsay Lohan casting and Parent Trap nostalgia proved to be strategic wins (powerfully with millennials and Gen X), though some execution elements created confusion that may have diluted what could have been exceptional purchase intent.
- The ad successfully created awareness and interest in Reese’s Oreo, which was actually perceived as new for some viewers, but the curiosity didn’t always translate into purchase urgency (needing it now). In the shorter form creatives, no clear product detail or benefit was articulated beyond novelty, perhaps missing taste cues or sensory triggers that drive immediate craving.
- The twin metaphor was clever but not necessarily making the product more desirable vs memorable (the latter could obviously be enough given the appeal of this ‘twinning’). Very few comments about how it tastes or what eating experience to expect were seen. Of course, earlier product close-ups or descriptions might have also helped here, as viewers spent cognitive energy figuring out what the ad was about rather than building appetite appeal. When the product finally appeared, there was insufficient time to build craving or urgency.
- A small contingent expressed concerns about a perceived lengthy/too frequent focus on cleavage/chest area, noted by multiple viewers—and distracting from the product.
- Viewer sentiment on the :30 “You Asked, Fate Answered” reveals that the Lindsay Lohan casting and Parent Trap nostalgia proved to be strategic wins (powerfully with millennials and Gen X), though some execution elements created confusion that may have diluted what could have been exceptional purchase intent.
Sample comments on the “You Asked, Fate Answered” :30
“I absolutely loved watching this ad. I think Lindsey Lohan looks amazing and I loved the reference to The Parent Trap. I have never seen this ad before. It gives ‘fall season’ for some reason. The product itself is also extremely intriguing. Makes you want to try it out right away.”
Female 18-35
“I loved the actress picked to represent the brand-very smart move. It was a perfectly paced ad that kept you engaged from start to finish.”
Male 18-35
“I absolutely loved this ad. I’m a big fan of Lindsay Lohan and I love Reese’s in general. I thought it was really funny and it made me really hungry.”
Female 36-49
“Lots of cleavage.”
Male 18-35
“I like Reese’s, but I didn’t particularly like this ad. It seemed kind of random and didn’t do a good job showcasing the product.”
Female 18-35
“That was an amusing choice of actress considering her movie work history. It seemed like a good choice for a commercial about a product switch-up.”
Male 50+
“Didn’t know this product existed, looks tasty. The twin concept is a good idea, but the ad felt long.”
Male 18-35
“It was an interesting ad. Took a few seconds to realize it was Lindsay Lohan and that it was a throwback to her childhood film. I’m intrigued by the product and liked how the two were combined via pendants.”
Female 36-49
“It made Reese’s look bad. It focused on the women’s chest area and is almost sexualizing the candy brand. It is wrong.”
Female 18-35
“To me, it didn’t catch my attention right away. I did not know what the commercial was for until the end.”
Female 36-49
“It made me want to go to the store and buy some Reese’s Oreos.”
Male 50+
“I liked The Parent Trap throwback. The message was simple and made sense to the product.”
Female 36-49
“Overall, it seemed like a waste of time, and the product wasn’t mentioned until the end.”
Male 36-49
“Show more of the product in the ad, less of the people I want to see how good it looks.”
Male 36-49
“The nostalgia! Ah, I loved this ad. So cute and clever!”
Female 18-35
- Response to the Open Farm ads was generally consistent regardless of what food was recently purchased, with “Sweet Girl” :30 appealing across users of all other competitive brands/types:
- “Two Fated Icons” sparked consumer intent at a rate +4 pts above norm—the only execution to clear the norm on this metric.
- However, the :15 “Destiny Fulfilled” earned a 62% Top 2 Box intent, trailing the :30 by just one point and therefore offering flexibility in media plans, if desired.
- “Two Fated Icons” sparked consumer intent at a rate +4 pts above norm—the only execution to clear the norm on this metric.
- For the 18-35 audience, investing in the :30 could be worth the extra cost over the :15 but the :15 resonated best with those 36-49:
- The most balanced audience across candy (and especially chocolate) intenders will likely be delivered by the :30 spot. However, the :15 offered less ‘objectionable’ scenes for the small contingent that expressed concerns about inappropriateness.
- iSpot Media Measurement reports limited support behind the new Reese’s Oreo campaign over the two weeks ending 8/4/26 (ads just launched on 8/3/26):
- This new campaign built stronger intent rates than the spots currently being favored on national linear and streaming, suggesting a shift in media support be considered.
- “Taller” and “Covered Eyes” show evidence of light creative wear in-market, while “Peer Pressure” has advanced to medium wear, pointing to declining attention for these ads.
- This new campaign built stronger intent rates than the spots currently being favored on national linear and streaming, suggesting a shift in media support be considered.
- One of Snickers’ more recent “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” ads that featured an “AI Eulogy” at a funeral landed well with younger males, but the offbeat humor did not resonate across the broad audience, nor did it spark increased intent:
Ineffective creative, even if delivered to the right audience, results in missed opportunity and performance shortfalls. Great creative delivered poorly also results in failed campaigns.
Schedule a demo to find out how your brand can partner with iSpot to quickly solve both challenges simultaneously, delivering high-performing creative while boosting the effectiveness of planning and in-market execution to achieve—and outperform—campaign objectives.
Creative Agency: Juxtapose Studio