Oatly continues its witty conversations with potential customers. Characteristically, on a billboard. Uncharacteristically this time using a lot of words. Actually. it used two billboards. It ran out of space.

Oatly doesn’t do advertising like the others. It makes its own rules.

The new OOH campaign introduces Oatly to New Zealand, using what the company itself describes as “the wordiest, stupidest billboards ever”.

The copy follows Oatly’s friendly colloquial style. You really can’t help but like the brand. The first billboard begins, “If there’s one thing you need to know about  Oatly, it’s this: You’re probably thinking: “One thing? In all these words?” And also: “No Way.” And likely also: “This is just a way to trick me into reading it.” Our compliments to your perceptive-ness. We are, after all, a company that’s hocking oat drink and it’s not like you’ll be convinced to buy some just by seeing an illustration of one of our packages (though we included that as well, just in case it really is that easy).

“‘At this point, your train of thought has probably moved on to: “Maybe, if I read sideways or backwards or whatnot, I can unlock a secret prize of a million Swedish kronor.” (If you don’t currently have a currency converter on your person, know that a million Swedish krona equals almost 500,000 Malaysian ringgit or over 48 million Comorian francs.)

“Unfortunately, there’s no such hidden prize. While that may be disappointing news, at least you got to experience the magic of a random oat drink company predicting your thoughts…”

The billboard also includes a link to Oatly’s sustainability report and a neatly hidden give-away of fifty free oat flat whites a day for anyone who “notices” the billboards.

The second billboard reads, “(sorry ran out of room on the other billboard…) Williams Eatery is what we were going to say. it’s at 85 Daldy Street. And yes, your initial skepticism was apparently well-founded – that really was more than one thing.”

The campaign was created at Oatly’s in-house agency, Oatly Department of Mind Control (ODMC).

“We realise billboards are supposed to be short and to the point,” stated Kevin Lynch, creative director, ODMC. “We also realise following rules is not one of our core competencies.”

Here are some other gems: