Spider-Man: Brand New Day is pulling out all the stops with its marketing push, and the latest international promotional collaboration is one nobody saw coming. With Tom Holland's fourth outing as the web-slinger building toward an online second trailer reveal, Sony is keeping the movie in front of as many eyeballs as possible in the meantime. That leads to these types of unexpected partnerships, a broad global reach, including the latest fruit-filled promo video.
The partner here is Oasis, a popular fruit juice brand that has been around since 1966. It's a major European label that originated in France, but the chances are U.S. fans probably haven't drunk it before. But that's the point, as this is Sony Pictures international marketing working its magic on the way to another $1 billion blockbuster.
The ad, posted to the Oasis Be Fruit YouTube channel, is a full animated short running about 90 seconds. It follows the brand's existing animated fruit mascots, Mango, Raspberry, Strawberry, and Peach, lounging on a tropical island.
Mango is on his phone watching the first Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer when, suddenly, a spider bites him.
After the initial pain wears off, he gets excited at the prospect of becoming a superhero. Then a coconut falls from a tree and knocks him out cold.
What follows is a dream sequence where all four fruit characters are suited up in Spider-Man costumes, walking out of the "Cocostume Shop" (the ad leans heavily into fruit-based puns).
Mango, now a hero in his dream, declares in French (translated to English): "With little power comes little responsibility."
In the dream, the crew attempts to save a cat, rescues a lemon tree from a burning building, and gets handed the key to New York City at an official ceremony.
That last moment is a direct recreation of a scene from the actual Brand New Day trailer, where Spider-Man is awarded the key to the city, given to him by Daredevil: Born Again's Sheila Riviera (Zabryna Guevara).
Later on, the Strawberry, Raspberry, and Peach accidentally trip two criminals with a selfie stick (they were just trying to get a photo), which inadvertently hands the nearby cops an easy arrest.
There's also a brief Scorpion nod, with Mango trying to scale a building using two toilet plungers before spotting a real scorpion through a window, panicking, and falling. That fall forces him out of the dream and back on the beach.
This shows some of the direct tie-ins Oasis was able to make. Given that Michael Mando is returning as Scorpion in the new film, the sequence feels less generic and more specific to Brand New Day.
The way real Brand New Day footage is woven into the ad, shown on Mango's phone screen, etc, makes it feel like a legitimate collaborative effort rather than just a logo stuck on a can (which is ultimately the product being sold).
There's even a pun layered into the theatrical Brand New Day plug, with "EXCLUSIVEMANGUE AU CINÉMA" riffing on the phrase for "exclusively in theaters," swapping in "mangue" (mango) for good measure.
The collaboration itself is selling a limited-edition line of four branded cans: Tropical, Pomme Cassis Framboise, Thé Pêche Ice Tea, and Fraise Framboise.
Each features the Oasis fruit characters reimagined in Spider-Man suit designs against a New York City skyline backdrop. There's also a sweepstakes component, with buyers getting a chance to win a trip to New York.
Is it a weird pairing? Sure. But from a pure business standpoint, it makes sense. Brand New Day needs strong international visibility, and Oasis has the reach to help deliver it. All summer folks will be sipping on Oasis, waiting for Holland to swing back into theaters.
Selling an International Spider-Man Film
The Oasis collaboration is the latest example of something Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios are clearly focused on: making Brand New Day a global event.
2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home is the highest-grossing Spider-Man film ever made, pulling in $1.9 billion worldwide. What's notable is that $1.1 billion of that came from international markets, and that record-breaking number happened without a single dollar from China.
Sony and Marvel famously declined to cut the Statue of Liberty scenes that Chinese authorities requested, and the film never opened there.
Brand New Day won't have that problem, so don't expect an MCU Statue of Liberty update this summer.
China has officially confirmed the film's release, a significant development given the market's upside potential. The UK was No Way Home's biggest international market at $127.4 million, and France contributed a strong $70.2 million on its own, which helps explain why a French juice brand is sending animated fruit to New York in the new animated short.
Brand New Day also has an early start in select markets. The film is set to open in international markets such as Germany and the Philippines on July 29, two days before its U.S July 31. Every move being made right now points toward one goal: match or beat what No Way Home did.
