• by Erik Oster , January 16, 2024

Kind Snacks has come out in support of quitting.

The brand teamed up with actress Lana Condor (“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”) for a campaign putting a positive spin on the phenomenon of people abandoning New Year’s resolutions during the middle of January.

“It is nearly impossible to start the year without the overwhelming pressure and noise of our ‘eat this, not that’ culture that escalates each January,” Kind CMO Osher Hoberman explained in a release.

“Quitter’s Day has become a marketing moment, with brands urging consumers not to quit their resolutions so easily this year,” Suejin Kim, senior director, integrated communications and brand purpose, told Marketing Daily, adding that the brand “wanted to take a different approach” and connect the campaign to the brand’s ambition to “make the world a little kinder.”

At a time when many brands are running campaigns offering to help customers stick to, or re-commit to, their goals, it’s a statement that stands out.

Condor brought that surprise message to audiences directly with a one-day “Better You by Lana” popup experience at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. The experiential activation included custom gifts designed by Condor and Kind for the first 100 people in line at what they may have assumed was a typical wellness store.

“Each and every January, we all feel like we should be changing our daily routines to become better versions of ourselves. It’s time to ask ourselves how well these resolutions are serving us,” Condor said in a statement.

“Better You by Lana certainly sounds like a wellness store in name, but the experience Kind and I teamed up to create is anything but,” she added, describing it instead as designed to “empower consumers to shut out the noise that comes with the new year.”

The brand teased the Jan. 12 activation with a digital campaign that included an Instagram post designed to build hype and suspense around whether Condor was indeed opening up a store.

The broader “Shut Off the Noise” omnichannel campaign will run through March, with elements running across YouTube,the brand’s social channels, and iHeart Media through select podcasts, including the “Happiness Lab.” Its digital video component is a 30-second spot focusing on a women walking through a city with headphones on,  blocking out a barrage of wellness messaging before sitting on a bench to enjoy a Kind bar.