What it had to solve
In Stranger Things 3, hero Steve Harrington works at Scoops Ahoy, a fictional 1985 ice cream parlor. Baskin-Robbins and its Atlanta agency of record 22squared partnered with Netflix to give fans a physical place to interact with the show.
The idea
Extend the show's fictional 1985 ice cream parlor into a real chain — rebuilt stores, an in-universe flavor, and puzzles hidden in the packaging.
How it works
Five elements: on 2 July a Baskin-Robbins in Burbank, California and another in Toronto were given full Scoops Ahoy makeovers — sign, bow booth, menus, employee uniforms — for two weeks; a :15 commercial promoted USS Butterscotch, a nationwide limited flavor the R&D team built from the show's menu, deliberately shot like a bad 1980s local TV ad with 4:3 framing; an ice cream yacht handed out free USS Butterscotch at select California locations; and Morse code hidden in select items and commercials decoded to 1-888-273-9152, where a password dropped callers into a mystery AR game.
What it did
Fans found the hidden Morse code and called the number, extending the hunt beyond the store window; the activation tied a national flavor launch to two flagship store takeovers. No sales figures were reported.
Background
In Stranger Things 3, hero Steve Harrington works at Scoops Ahoy, a fictional 1985 ice cream parlor. Baskin-Robbins, working with its Atlanta agency of record 22squared, partnered with Netflix to bring the shop into the real world — after Netflix first reached out to the chain over LinkedIn and asked it to pitch ideas.
The activation had five parts. On 2 July 2019, a Baskin-Robbins in Burbank, California and another in Toronto were converted into Scoops Ahoy — sign, bow booth, menus, uniforms — and stayed in character for two weeks. A 15-second commercial promoted USS Butterscotch, a nationwide limited flavor Baskin-Robbins' R&D team built from the show's menu, purposely shot 'like a local TV ad from the 1980s, complete with bad acting, bad camera moves, and 4:3 aspect ratio', said 22squared creative director Curt Mueller. A Scoops Ahoy ice cream yacht handed out free scoops at select California locations.
The layer that kept fans digging: Morse code hidden in select products and commercials translated to a phone number, 1-888-273-9152, which prompted callers for a password and dropped them into a mystery augmented reality game. 'Part of making this world feel believable is making every communication feel like it's from 1985', Mueller said.
Why it lands
The chain matched the Duffer Brothers' obsession with 1985 authenticity, so super fans read it as a real-world extension of the show rather than a tie-in.
The AR puzzle under the packaging gave the campaign a second life after the two-week store window closed.
A nationwide limited flavor meant the attention the two stunt stores generated could convert in every Baskin-Robbins, not just in Burbank and Toronto.
What you can take
Fictional brand cameos are invitations: match the show's own production obsession — 1985 authenticity down to bad camera moves — instead of slapping a logo on the moment.
Since then
The shops stayed Scoops Ahoy for two weeks from 2 July 2019; the source reports no sales figures for the USS Butterscotch launch.
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