Trend Mill

How Brand Collabs Became a Fixture of the Marketing Playbook

From $90,000 Oreos to BTS McDonald’s meals, crossovers are more than just a hype-inducing stunt

Stephen Moore
Marker
Published in
5 min readJun 3, 2021

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Photo: Supreme/Stylecaster

Would you pay over $91,000 for a three-pack of Oreos?

Before you rush to answer “no!,” note that these are no ordinary Oreos. These are bright red, have the Supreme logo imprinted on them, and are very limited in quantity.

When the Supreme x Oreo crossover released on February 18, 2020, fans quickly ate up the offering, though not in the literal sense. These buyers were grabbing the limited-run three-pack for $8 and immediately turning to resell in a bid to make a quick buck. Sales were seen as high as $91,000 before seller sites like eBay pulled them.

‘X’ marks the spot

This was by no means the first successful crossover between two seemingly disconnected brands. Supreme is the undisputed king of the crossover, slapping its highly sought-after logo on almost every item in existence with continued success. It wasn’t even Oreo’s first dabble with collaborations — remember their Swedish Fish run? Of late, the most common crossover takes the form of food and drink companies teaming with fashion brands. A few of the highlights…

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Stephen Moore
Marker
Writer for

Writer, editor, part-time furniture maker. Subscribe to Trend Mill for critical takes on our dystopian metaverse hellscape future - https://www.trend-mill.com