Creative work on the "Blue and Yellow World" project began last summer, targeting core users in a playful style that has become a trademark for a product commonly viewed as a pop culture icon.

"Item No. 1 in this campaign was inviting core users to view the product with a refreshed idea of its actual usage," says Brian Kroening, executive creative director for BBDO Minneapolis, Hormel's ad agency. "We were targeting our base but also trying to break the thought pattern that 'SPAM is great but I only use it for this particular occasion.'" 

Print ads present messages right on the can (in lieu of the word SPAM) with scrambled combinations of the product's letters to convey the campaign's key themes -- cravability (MMMMM and ASAP) and versatility (AM PM).

"There aren't many brands that you can take this sort of liberty with," says Kroening. "But the SPAM tin is so universal and recognizable that we were really trying to figure out ways to leverage the brand's power as well."