• by Teresa Buyikian , July 1, 2024

Ah, “The O.C.” The quintessential 2000s show, (fictionally) depicting Orange County, California’s insanely drama-filled, young, beautiful and rich inhabitants. Even those who weren’t fans loved to hate it.

Now the originators of the show -- creator Josh Schwartz and executive producer Stephanie Savage -- and their production company, Fake Empire, have been tapped to bring back “The O.C.” (along with the drama) in a new series of ads for 21Seeds Tequila.

The female-founded, infused tequila brand also brought in original “The O.C.” star Rachel Bilson, who is reprising her character of an adult Summer Roberts, for the ads, which also commemorate the 21st anniversary of the show.

“The idea for this campaign came about during the writer’s strike, which made Josh and Stephanie available to work with us, which they likely wouldn’t have been able to do before,” Adrienne Cuschieri, business director for 21Seeds, told Marketing Daily. “We are so lucky that we had some of Hollywood’s biggest thinkers looking at our brand in a creative way tied to some of their most notable work.”

The ads, which use “The O.C.” theme song throughout, all take place at an epic pool party (where else?) hosted by Summer. In “Spicy Delivery” she oversees the delivery of 21Seeds infused tequila, where the delivery guy ends up being a bad boy from Summer’s past. Unfortunately he has his next delivery in Chino, a Los Angeles suburb no one from O.C. would ever set foot in (for many reasons, but mostly because it is OUTSIDE O.C., where the cast rarely tread).

The “Paloma Party" shows Summer mixing a Paloma cocktail using 21Seeds Grapefruit Hibiscus, while a woman at the pool has a complete screaming meltdown, complete with throwing a chaise lounge into the pool. Summer says the tantrum-thrower is pissed because she missed her “Yogalates” class.

“It would be impossible for us to ignore the massive wave of Y2K nostalgia and reboots flooding pop culture,” Cuschieri told Marketing Daily. “We also know fans of “The O.C.” have been asking for a revival for a long time, so when we realized the iconic show will celebrate its 21st birthday this August, we thought what better way to celebrate than with a fun look into Summer’s life in 2024.”

According to Cuschieri, the “Serving Summer” campaign is brand’s biggest creative push since it founded in 2019. The ads launch today and will run on Hulu, Max, Peacock, among other digital platforms, as well as on the brand's official Instagram profile @21seeds.