The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2021
Jif unites lyrical and mumble rap: Ludacris and Gunna team up in The Lil Jif Project
When critics said mumble rap sounds like a mouth full of peanut butter, Jif made that joke the premise of a real rap truce.
Jif
What it had to solve
Over the previous decade a heated rivalry had grown between traditional lyrical rap and newer 'mumble rap' — which critics said sounded like rappers with a mouth full of peanut butter. Jif, the biggest peanut butter brand in the US, stepped in to unite the two generations instead of taking a side.
How it works
For a decade rap culture had been split between traditional lyrical rap and newer 'mumble rap', with critics joking that the new style sounded like rappers with a mouth full of peanut butter. Jif — the biggest peanut butter brand in the US — had the perfect stake in that joke and chose to do something with it.
Instead of taking a side, Jif brought the two generations together: Ludacris, a lyrical heavyweight, was paired with Gunna, one of the hottest rappers of the moment, for The Lil Jif Project. The creative premise literalized the insult — peanut butter was the bridge between the old flow and the new one — and the collaboration ran across audio, social, TV and beyond.
The project made a brand part of a cultural conversation it could never have bought its way into by argument alone, and the work was strong enough to be archived by D&AD under Digital Marketing and Media.
Why it lands
- The brand owns the joke — 'sounds like a mouth full of peanut butter' — so the insult becomes the brand's creative territory.
- Uniting both sides gives each audience a reason to watch, instead of preaching to one camp.
- Casting a respected lyrical rapper with a current mumble-rap star makes the truce credible within the culture.
- The idea scales naturally across audio, social and TV because the premise is a sound and a story, not a slogan.
What it did
The project turned a generational rap feud into a brand-owned cultural moment — one side literally rapping with peanut butter in its mouth, the other approving the new flow — and earned the work a place in the D&AD awards archive under Digital Marketing and Media.
What you can take
When a culture is feuding over a joke, the brand that owns the punchline can broker the peace — taking one side would have been weaker than uniting both.
Since then
After its multi-platform run, The Lil Jif Project lived on as a reference point for brand-led cultural collaborations: the work entered the D&AD awards archive, where it is filed under Digital Marketing and Media as an example of a brand using a cultural dispute — and its own product — as the creative engine.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card