Oreo "You Can Still Dunk in the Dark": The Super Bowl Tweet That Defined Real-Time Marketing

On February 3, 2013, early in the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, half the lights in the Superdome went out. Play stopped for more than half an hour. More than 100 million TV viewers had nothing to watch.

A few minutes later, Oreo posted a tweet. It was a simple image of an Oreo cookie in shadow with the line: “You can still dunk in the dark.” The accompanying text read: “Power out? No problem.”

It was retweeted over 10,000 times within hours. By the next morning, it was being called the best ad of the Super Bowl.

The Context

Super Bowl advertising is the most expensive media in the world. In 2013, a 30-second TV slot cost around $4 million. Brands spent months developing ads and millions more producing them.

At the same time, Twitter was becoming the place people talked while watching live TV. Brands were starting to experiment with posting during big events, but most of those posts were planned in advance.

Oreo had built a reputation for timely social media in 2012 with its “Daily Twist” campaign, created with agency 360i to mark the cookie’s 100th birthday. For 100 days, Oreo posted an image reacting to a news event or cultural moment, using the cookie in a creative way. The campaign taught Oreo’s team to create and approve content quickly.

For the Super Bowl, Oreo had a TV ad in the game. It also had a team from 360i and the brand in a “mission control” room, watching the game and ready to respond.

The Campaign

When the lights went out, the team saw an opportunity. With the brand’s decision-makers in the room, they could create and approve an image within minutes. There was no need to wait for sign-off from executives who were at home watching the game.

The image was simple: a single Oreo, partly lit, against a dark background. The line, “You can still dunk in the dark,” was a play on the classic way of eating Oreos and the blackout everyone was watching.

It went out on Twitter and quickly spread. Media outlets writing about the blackout picked it up. Marketing writers covered it the next day as the standout brand moment of the night.

The Daily Twist campaign was essential preparation. For 100 days in 2012, Oreo and 360i posted a new image each day that linked the cookie to something happening in the news or culture: a Mars rover landing, Shark Week, the Olympics, a national holiday. Each image had to be conceived, designed, approved and posted within a day. The process trained the team to work quickly and gave the brand’s legal and management teams confidence in fast approvals.

One of the most talked-about Daily Twist posts was a rainbow-coloured Oreo released in support of Pride in June 2012. It caused both praise and criticism, and it showed that Oreo was willing to take on real cultural moments. That confidence carried into the Super Bowl.

On game night, the “mission control” room included copywriters, designers, social media managers and brand representatives. Their job was to watch the game and the online conversation and respond to anything relevant. When the blackout happened, the team already had the right people in place to create and approve the post within minutes.

Why It Worked

It was ready. The tweet did not come from luck. It came from preparation. The right people were together, the process was fast, and they had practised through the Daily Twist campaign.

It was relevant. Everyone watching the game knew about the blackout. Oreo spoke directly to what they were experiencing at that moment.

It was about the product. The line was not a random joke. Dunking is the most Oreo thing there is. The tweet was clever and on-brand at the same time.

It was simple. One image, one line. No explanation needed. That made it easy to share.

The timing created a vacuum. With the game stopped, millions of people were looking at their phones with nothing to watch. Oreo filled the gap.

The Results

The tweet was retweeted more than 10,000 times within hours and liked thousands more times on Twitter and Facebook. It generated coverage across major news outlets and dominated marketing press after the game. Many observers said it got more attention than Oreo’s expensive TV ad in the same game.

The tweet became the most-cited example of real-time marketing. In the following years, many brands set up social “war rooms” for major events, hoping for a similar moment.

The tweet’s influence was enormous, but not always positive. After “Dunk in the Dark,” many brands rushed to create real-time content, often forcing themselves into moments where they did not belong. Some attempts were awkward or insensitive, particularly when brands tried to join conversations about tragedies or serious news. Marketers began to talk about the difference between being relevant and simply being present.

The lasting lesson was not that every brand needs to tweet during big events. It was that marketing teams need processes that allow them to act quickly when the right moment arrives. That means clear guidelines, empowered decision-makers and a strong sense of the brand’s voice.

The Lesson for Today’s Marketers

Real-time marketing looks spontaneous but depends on planning. Oreo succeeded because the right people were in the room with the authority to approve a post in minutes.

Relevance beats volume. The tweet worked because it spoke to a shared moment and linked it directly to the product. Many later attempts failed because brands forced themselves into moments where they had nothing relevant to say.

Finally, speed without judgement is dangerous. The same speed that allows a brilliant response can also produce a mistake. Build a team that knows when to post and, just as importantly, when not to.