Cheetos hires Wednesday's Thing as its spokeshand and turns New York orange

Inflation had made US snack shoppers price-sensitive and the category noisy in 2025, while Netflix's Wednesday — whose second season premiered on 6 August — had turned Thing, the silent mischievous hand, into a cult character. Cheetos' brand signature is Cheetle, the orange dust that leaves fingerprints on anyone who eats the snack, and the agency saw the overlap: one brand built on orange-covered fingers, one of pop culture's most famous hands.

Hire Wednesday's Thing as official spokeshand, dust his fingers in Cheetle and let him escape a Times Square billboard, leaving orange fingerprints across the city.

Goodby Silverstein & Partners opened with a film of Thing being invited to become the brand's official 'spokeshand,' then put him on limited-edition bags, billboards, social content and even podcast interviews with Cheetle on his fingertips. The centrepiece was a Times Square takeover: Thing escaped an enormous LED Cheetos billboard, tampered with other brands' ads, and covered taxis, newsstands, statues, street artists and 'I Love NY' tees in orange fingerprints for a day. The partnership ran in the US, Brazil, Mexico and Canada. In Mexico, Thing actor Victor Dorobantu came with the series' VFX and makeup teams to shoot on recreated Nevermore sets, while a limited-edition Flamin' Hot Fiery Skulls bag with Thing on-pack reached the US and Canada in July 2025.

The limited-edition bag sold out in days and became one of the three fastest-selling Cheetos products ever; overall sales rose 9% year over year. Hundreds of thousands of Times Square visitors photographed and shared the orange fingerprints, and the campaign generated more than 423 million impressions. At the 30th Webby Awards in April 2026, the jury named 'The Official Thingertips of Cheetos' the winner in Installation or Experience within Advertising, Media & PR.

Salty snacks got brutally competitive in 2025: inflation made shoppers price-sensitive and brands fought for attention. At the same moment Netflix's Wednesday was one of its biggest hits, and Thing — the disembodied hand with a taste for mischief — had become the show's breakout cult character. Cheetos' whole brand signature is Cheetle, the orange dust that leaves fingerprints behind, so Goodby Silverstein & Partners pitched the overlap as a plot twist: one brand built on orange fingers, one of pop culture's most famous hands.

The campaign, titled 'The Official Thingertips of Cheetos,' opened with a film in which Thing is invited to become Cheetos' official spokeshand. He then appeared on limited-edition packaging, billboards, social content and podcasts, before escaping an LED Cheetos billboard in Times Square and covering the neighbourhood in orange fingerprints — taxis, newsstands, statues, street artists and 'I Love NY' shirts. The partnership spanned the US, Brazil, Mexico and Canada; in Mexico, Thing actor Victor Dorobantu and the show's VFX and makeup teams recreated Nevermore sets for his missions.

Cheetos released an exclusive limited-edition Flamin' Hot Fiery Skulls flavour in the US and Canada in July. The Thing bag sold out in days, becoming one of the three fastest-selling Cheetos products ever, overall sales rose 9% year over year, and the stunt drew hundreds of thousands of Times Square visitors, topping 423 million impressions in total.

In April 2026 the 30th Webby Awards jury named the campaign its winner in Installation or Experience, and the work's case also sits in the ADC 105th Annual Awards advertising archive. By giving a borrowed character a job — and letting him do it badly, in character — Cheetos made a licensing deal feel like mischief, which is exactly the brand it has always claimed to be.

The match is a pun made literal: a brand famous for orange fingers adopted a character that is a hand, so the partnership explains itself at a glance.

Casting Thing as a hired spokeshand gave the character behaviour — interviews, billboard escapes, fingerprints — instead of a logo to hold.

The Times Square escape turned media placement into a live event the public photographed and reposted, blurring marketing and mischief.

Give the borrowed character a job to do in the brand's world — Thing was hired as spokeshand and behaved in character — so a licensing deal plays like plot, and the product becomes the story.

The campaign closed the Wednesday season as one of Cheetos' strongest launches in years: the limited-edition bag sold out in days, the brand reported 9% sales growth and more than 423 million impressions, and the 'official spokeshand' became a running character rather than a one-off endorsement. The Webby win in April 2026 certified the idea inside the industry. For Cheetos, the hand opened a franchise it can revisit every time Wednesday or its universe returns.