It’s tough being a boutique soft drink brand. There seems to be a new one every other minute catching this trend or that, and all of them competing with huge rivals that have massive budgets and decades of fame.

Olipop began more than ten years ago, an early entrant in the “functional soft drink” category that’s now overflowing. It’s more earnestly functional than most: “We’ve assembled a global team of leading human gut microbiome research pioneers with diverse expertise spanning digestive health, prebiotic structures, model gut systems and gut microbiome-supportive nutritional strategies. We work with them to translate cutting edge research and findings into OLIPOP’s product development,” the brand notes on its website.

But it has chosen an emotive campaign to make it stand out – leaning into nostalgia and the truth that flavours can evoke memories and emotions – as well as food or drink loyalty.

The campaign is a series of formatted testimonial-style commercials. Formatted yes, but each presented as a personal anecdote that borrows from the power-cell appeal of getting inside celebrity lives. Celebrities such as White Lotus star, Nicholas Duvernay; US actress and singer, Kristin Chenoweth; Broadway star, Chenoweth; football star, Travis Hunter; Dawson’s Creek’s Joshua Jackson; and country artist, Tanner Adell, recount their soft drink stories as well as Olipop’s healthier, tastier message.

The feel-good creative is running owned and paid social channels in the US and Canada, as well as out of home in select markets, and the brand is encouraging everyday people to share their own “soda stories”.