• by Danielle Oster , June 3, 2024

Naked -- the Tropicana Brands Group product best known for its smoothie blends -- is tackling the afternoon energy slump in its new, lighthearted campaign built around the message “When Thungry, Get Naked.”

According to a release about the campaign, which debuted last week, the effort focuses on “the mid-afternoon slump when it's difficult to differentiate between feeling hungry, thirsty, or two things at once.”

While the brand claims it "coined the term ‘thungry’ for the feeling of being simultaneously hungry and thirsty,” it appears to have been around for a while. The definition “When your [SIC] both thirsty and hungry” for the term on Urban Dictionary dates to October 12, 2007.

Putting aside questions of the term’s origin, the campaign employs the portmanteau to communicate Naked’s brand promise of fulfilling both needs simultaneously, further highlighted by the line “a drink you can food."

The brand partnered with FIG, which it named as its creative agency of record earlier this year, for a series of ads helmed by comedic director Tom Kuntz. A veteran commercial director who shot Old Spice’s Emmy-winning 2010 “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” ad, Kuntz presents a variety of scenarios when people feel two things at once. For example, an heir is both happy and sad at a wealthy aunt’s funeral (as shown by his wiping his tears with a wad of bills), while a child shows a mixture of relief and suspicion about a pet guinea pig's seemingly waking up from a very long nap.

FIG’s first campaign for the brand, the work came from the review process that led to the independent agency’s selection.

“'’Thungry’' was a pitch-winning idea that evolved and became simplified after we were awarded the business,” FIG CCO and partner Justine Armour explained in a statement, adding that the campaign was the “result of deep collaboration with our new clients.”

The campaign was also designed to increase the brand's appeal to a Gen Z audience, who are more likely to look for functional benefits in snacks, according to the release.

Launched on May 28, the cross-channel social and digital campaign will run across Meta, YouTube, TikTok; and feature 15 and 30-seconds versions of ads running on streaming platforms, including BET+, Disney+, Peacock, and Roku.