We sold direct to consumers on Amazon.com.

Personal care is important to our consumer, with hair, makeup, nail art… and skin care being of utmost importance.

So if she was contributing to this $500 billion beauty industry… we’d meet her where she was.

Inspired by the childhood tradition of biting holes into bologna to make face masks, we created our own hydrating facial mask made to look just like bologna, and we dropped it on Amazon.com.

For over 100 years, Oscar Mayer has sparked smiles by creating iconic pieces of Americana, not ads—from classic songs most Americans can remember word-for-word, such as “My Bologna Has a First Name,” and “I Wish I Were an Oscar Mayer Wiener,” to a sampling truck in the shape of a giant hot dog.

In short, the brand stands to put Oscar Mayer in, and take seriousness out.

So when bologna sales stalled, we needed to find a new way to re-energize this once iconic product in our portfolio.

And if our consumer wasn’t spending her money on bologna, we needed to go where she was spending: the beauty industry.

With a budget of only $100k, we needed to create something with far-reaching impact, not just an ad. A moment in culture.

Inspired by the American childhood tradition of biting holes into bologna to make face masks, we created our own hydrating facial mask made to look just like bologna, and we dropped it on Amazon.com.

The outrageous mask was designed to look, feel—but not smell—like bologna, complete with “bite” holes for the eyes and mouth. Our bologna-inspired rejuvenating mask says personal care doesn’t have to be serious when it can be Oscar.

The result is a strategic combination of being a brand she loves, recognizing the other things she loves. And creating a creative touchpoint that strikes both.

As part of a larger mission to push Oscar Mayer out of the conventional food space and into a brand that moves at the speed of culture with our new brand positioning, “Keep It Oscar,” we identified our target consumer through purchase data, social listening, focus groups, and more.

Her interests as a millennial, whether she’s a parent or not, lie in all things pop culture—music, beauty, fashion, trends, and she’s always trying to stay on top of it all without compromising her values.

Personal care is important to her, with hair, makeup, nail art… and skin care being of utmost importance.

So if she was contributing to this $500 billion industry… we’d meet her where she was.

As one of the most self-serious spaces in culture, the beauty industry was a prime target for Oscar Mayer’s penchant for turning the mundane into fun, with meat.

Our face mask needed to be identical to both bologna and the tradition of our past—but it also couldn’t be another spoof product. So we created a real, hydrating mask, with real benefits. Then, it was all about the design:

From carefully matched pantones (down to speckling), to the texture, to even having eye and mouth holes that looked bitten out—the end result looked exactly like the childhood staple so many kids grew up with.

But it didn’t end there: Even the packaging of our face mask would resemble actual Oscar Mayer bologna packaging. With special instructions not to consume, of course.

Our packaging copy took on the lofty tones of a beauty product as well, continuing to take the seriousness out of the industry while inserting ourselves into it.

We then promoted this invention with a demo film and a stills campaign that was more beauty than meat.

The Bologna Mask earned conversation and conversion. It exploded across every major news channel, broke the Internet, and resulted in the best sales week for actual (edible) bologna in a year.

On Amazon, it became the #1 new release for the Beauty & Personal Care category within hours, making the top 0.3% of search terms on Amazon.com. All 35,000 face masks sold out and appeared on recognizable faces from superstars like Drew Barrymore, Wendy Williams, Hoda and Jenna, and Ross Matthews, to iconic internet celebrities and influencers.

From morning shows to late night, across major news sites from CNN to MSNBC to People, Washington Post, and more.

Results by the numbers:

-22% increase in sales of Oscar Mayer bologna—the food, not the mask—on

-Amazon Fresh, the highest week of sales for Oscar Mayer bologna in a year

-2 billion+ impressions

-1,500+ earned placements

-Brand mentions up 723%