Think back to 15 years ago, when a popular Friday night ritual was to visit your local Blockbuster store, rent a flick or two, and probably grab a pizza pie to bring home. Back in 2007, you may have rented Rush Hour 3 or Superbad, along with some popcorn or perhaps a pack of Oreo Cakesters Soft Snack Cakes; a popular treat released that year and discontinued in 2012. But recently, Nabisco, based in East Hanover, New Jersey, reintroduced the fan-favorite snack and brought in Blockbuster, another nostalgic brand, to mark its announcement. 

Oreo teamed with Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, to create a campaign with branding reminiscent of a newly-released movie. Inside the store, Oreo Cakesters was displayed in packaging that resembled retro VHS tapes with playful movie puns—Cakesters 2: Back At It and Cakesters: Resurrection—and was given to guests as samples. Above the in-store shelf display was signage that read “new release” to the right of the Oreo Cakesters logo. Faux Oreo Cakesters movie posters gleaned store walls, and a marquee was placed above and below the exterior Blockbuster logo: above was the Oreo Cakesters logo and below read, “It’s 2007 all over again.”

“Being the last-standing Blockbuster, we are rooted in nostalgia,” Sandi Harding, store manager of The Last Blockbuster, said in a statement. “We’re excited to collaborate with Oreo to surprise our shoppers with the unique experience to ‘rewind to 2007’ in celebration of the comeback of a beloved snack from their past.”

Tying feelings of wistfulness to a product is something that other brands have long been doing. For Oreo, this campaign and earlier ones were designed to link feelings of happiness to Oreo products through reminders of simpler times, writes Marketing Dive. A similar Oreo campaign was “Stay Home, Stay Playful,” launched in 2020 to inspire playfulness by suggesting family-friendly activities to do at home during the pandemic.  

Danielle Renda is an associate editor at PPAI.