SunnyD is not just trying to bring back a tagline. It is trying to rebuild a place in culture, and its parent company is giving that job to an agency built for big brand mythology. ADWEEK reports that Goodby Silverstein & Partners has become Harvest Hill Beverage Company’s first-ever creative agency of record, with a brief covering SunnyD, Juicy Juice and the wider portfolio.
That distinction matters. This is not a one-off campaign built around a familiar orange bottle. Goodby is being asked to define brand strategy across Harvest Hill’s portfolio and lead omnichannel creative development. UM, another Omnicom agency, will handle media. Goodby CEO Sarah Thompson described the arrangement as a long-term AOR agreement, although the contract length was not disclosed.
SunnyD’s nostalgia has to do more than remind people of the 1990s
SunnyD already has a recognizable memory bank. Its old “The good stuff kids go for” line belongs to the era when beverage brands could become part of family culture through a single television idea. But recognition is not the same as relevance. A product can be remembered warmly and still be absent from the habits of the people who remember it.
The reported strategy is to use millennial nostalgia alongside themes of togetherness. That is a sensible starting point, but it also creates the central creative problem. Nostalgia can earn attention quickly. It cannot, by itself, explain why a brand belongs in somebody’s life now.
The opportunity for Goodby is to treat the past as a cultural entry point rather than the entire proposition. SunnyD can use the codes people remember, but the work still needs to show what those codes mean in contemporary family life, friendship and shared routines. Otherwise, the comeback risks becoming a tribute act to its own advertising history.
The bigger move is portfolio thinking
Harvest Hill owns more than SunnyD and Juicy Juice. Its portfolio also includes Little Hug, Daily’s Cocktails and Nutrament. Giving one creative agency responsibility across that group suggests the company is looking for a more coherent way to build brands over time, rather than commissioning isolated bursts of activity for each label.
That is especially notable because Harvest Hill’s new owner, Castillo Hermanos, is described as prioritizing long-term brand building over quick growth. The agency appointment therefore carries a broader signal: the company appears willing to invest in distinctive brand memory before demanding an immediate performance story from every piece of work.
For marketers, the useful lesson is not that every tired brand needs a nostalgia campaign. It is that a comeback becomes more credible when the nostalgia is connected to a real operating decision. Here, that decision is a long-term creative relationship, a portfolio-wide remit and a separate media partnership. The strategy will be judged by whether those pieces produce a clearer role for each brand, not simply by whether an old slogan gets recognized.
SunnyD’s comeback will work if Goodby can turn familiarity into participation. The past may open the door, but only a sharper present-day reason to choose the brands will keep it open.