“We should totally just eat CESAR!” Lacey Chabert reprises Gretchen’s famous rant, only this time it’s a love letter to the dog food and a ritual for Mean Girls-loving pet parents.
CREATIVE TEAM (Weber Shandwick)
Michael Marino Executive Creative Director
Ben Therrien Group Creative Director
Maxwell Franklin Creative Director
Patrick Linehan Creative Director, Copy Lead
Lauren Lapid Associate Creative Director, Art & Design Lead
Maureen Lynch Lead Producer
Exit 14 Production + Post-Production
THE CHALLENGE — For many dog parents, CESAR is currently a "special treat" that they pick up maybe once a quarter for their dogs. We need to make CESAR an everyday staple worth buying at least once a month.
THE INSIGHT — For our target, few movies carry more nostalgia than Mean Girls, and its quotable moments (like Gretchen’s infamous “We should totally just stab Caesar!!!”) live rent-free in their heads. That shared cultural shorthand gives us a built-in way to make CESAR feel familiar, fun, and part of everyday life. By flipping the speech into “TOTALLY JUST EAT CESAR!!!” and bringing Lacey Chabert back as Gretchen, we can turn nostalgia into a habit and move occasional buyers toward regular CESAR loyalists.
THE IDEA: PHASE 1 — IGNITING CONVERSATION WITH A SOCIAL FIRST LAUNCH — Lacey Chabert launched the program with an in-feed Reel, published as a collab post with CESAR and timed to Mean Girls Day. We deliberately recreated the original scene’s lighting and shot style, so the moment feels instantly familiar, right up until the new punchline: “JUST EAT CESAR!" As a surprise easter egg, we even named our three pups "YUGO," "GLENN," and "COCOA."
Alongside it, we introduce the Pink Pack, a limited-time CESAR pack featuring all three pink packaged flavors with designs inspired by the iconic Mean Girls Burn Book.
THE IDEA: PHASE 2 — FUEL FAN ENGAGEMENT AND DRIVE PURCHASE INTENT
On Wednesdays, we wear pink, so that’s when the first CESAR Pink Pack bundle dropped! Owned social content and influencer amplification anchor the launch, sparking buzz and giving fans a direct way to buy into the moment.
THE IDEA: PHASE 3 — SUSTAINING THE CULTURAL WAVE
To keep the momentum going ahead of October 3rd, we dropped a second Lacey Chabert video, a fan-cam-style BTS recap opening with “On Wednesdays, dogs eat Cesar,” and invited fans to share their pups for a chance to win an exclusive Mean Girls-themed mailer packed with merch, dog goodies, and our Pink Pack.
THE RESULTS
191% above social performance benchmark (hero video)
1.1M hero content views
$546K+ in sales during launch period
7M+ podcast impressions
IN SUMMARY — Fetch officially happened. Lacey Chabert’s Mean Girls-inspired content made CESAR a star of the cultural conversation, with over 900K video views across her two posts, 1.1M Instagram reach on the hero post, and organic engagement that beat benchmarks on both Instagram and TikTok. The Pink Packs sold out in minutes across both drops, bringing in 486 requests, 481 marketing opt-ins, and a wave of new-to-brand fans, with 40% of first-drop requesters having never fed CESAR before. The excitement turned into real retail action, too: the Fetch offer moved over 419K trays for an estimated $536K in sales. Meanwhile, USA Today, Parade, OK! Magazine, and Paw Nation spread the word, 14 creators and influencers joined in, and Mean Girls stars like Jonathan Bennett and Lindsay Lohan showed up in the comments. Lacey’s team loved the final assets and is eager to work together again, proof that CESAR is totally grool.
