Photo: Leon Neal / Getty Images
At this point, you’ve seen, or at least heard of, Oatly’s first television commercial in the United States, a “poorly produced spot”, in the company’s words, which features CEO Toni Petersson and an electric keyboard, in a oat field that looks like it could be the standard wallpaper for a Dell computer that you bought in 1998. Petersson, eyes closed in musical ecstasy, sings: “It’s like milk, but made for humans”, before starting the chorus: “Wow / wow / there is no cow / no, no no.” That is not good. Charitably, we will say that it is Dylan-style. This continues for 30 seconds.
It was also, you should know, produced in 2014 and “considered illegal” in Oatly’s native Sweden, partly because of the phrase “it’s like milk, but made for humans”. Posting the ad now, says Oatly, is “the company’s way of saying hello to the millions of Americans who still don’t know our brand and may not realize that Oatly is an easy way to help tackle the climate crisis.”
Oatly, being Oatly, anticipated that you might not like Petersson’s musical style, which apparently had not gone well in Finland. The company was already prepared with free t-shirts that said “I totally hated that oatmeal commercial”. They are annoying. They are tasteless. They are, as of this morning, obviously exhausted.
When Oatly was launched in this country in 2016, his sassy self-awareness was undoubtedly charming. Their ads offered meta-comments about the nature of advertising (“Nowadays, they’ll place an oat milk ad anywhere”; “Did you really read that? Total success.”), And even if they were trying too hard – Oatly always did was thirsty – they were easy to ignore because oat milk was a welcome addition to the pantheon of alternatives to milk. When people tried, they lost their minds.
Now, Oatly is everywhere, all the time, and his ubiquitous ads are no longer new. Nor do they reflect the company’s current multinational reality. Oatly signed a $ 200 million deal with Blackstone this summer and is now reflecting on a potential $ 10 billion IPO. Perhaps in 2014, Oatly had no choice but to send his CEO and a keyboard to sit in a Swedish oat field after a mild summer rain, but an ad for Oatly produced in 2021 would probably take place in a boardroom, or possibly in New Jersey.
All of that would be much easier to deal with if Oatly made a bad product, but the problem is that Oatly’s false milk is Good. In coffee, which is the most important place for milk, it is decadently creamy, even according to the people who can and consume real cream. Oat milk is sweet enough and, in the case of cereals, it is exceptional, probably because, in a sense, it is also made from cereals. (This may be redundant, but it is complementary.) It is better than cow’s milk – anything is better than cow’s milk – but even considered in its own terms, Oatly reminds me of the Swedish childhood I didn’t have.
Oatly knows all of this! That is what is so irritating. Oatly understands that his false and peculiar advertising is irritating. This is the ethos of your brand that saves the world – “We sell oat milk [sic] but we are really a sustainability company ”- it is transparently great. That the phrase “oat milk” itself is unpleasant to read or see. But Oatly remains one of the first highlights on the alternative milk scene and is, in the opinion of this alternative milk drinker – good in spite of himself. Oatly is presumptuous and consciously “not good” at making ads, but the company is extremely and authentically very good at milking oats.