Dorothy “Dot” Lyon, a diminutive Midwestern housewife with military-grade survival skills, substitutes buttermilk for water in her Bisquick biscuits, adding “love and joy” as additional ingredients.
The result is a fluffy carb so delicious and comforting that it staves off a revenge killing and tames an immortal Welsh-Scandinavian hitman. The day—and the home-cooked family dinner—is saved.
To those who didn’t watch season five of Fargo—a cult favorite thriller on FX and Hulu that starred Juno Temple, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Jason Leigh—this might sound like gibberish. But to the faithful, it’s now part of the twisted lore of the Noah Hawley-created anthology that used Bisquick as a key plot point in the show’s recent finale.
Taking advantage of that unpaid placement, Bisquick and agency Pereira O’Dell launched a Fargo-inspired campaign and limited-time product drop, aiming to superserve the loyalists and build buzz around the legacy Betty Crocker brand.
If you know, you know
Fewer than 100 boxes of Bisqick—labeled “a very special recipe” and decorated with Dot’s kitchen apron design—went on sale early this week at a single supermarket in Scandia, Minn., Dot’s adopted hometown where the drama was set.
“This may feel extremely niche, but that’s because it is,” Jason Apaliski, executive creative director at Pereira O’Dell, told ADWEEK. “Tapping into that intense [audience] love, even if it’s because we got lucky, was an opportunity we couldn’t miss. This collaboration is dedicated to the Fargo fandom.”
The stunt spawned a subreddit discussion, local news coverage and a near sellout on the first day. Social media extensions will give away some additional boxes to those who couldn’t make it to the rural town with a population of less than 4,000, about 25 miles outside St. Paul.
The agency has been working with parent company General Mills for seven years, although this is its first campaign for Bisquick under a new Betty Crocker assignment. The current mandate is to make some noise for grocery store staples.
“General Mills has big ambitions to embed its brands into pop culture in interesting ways that are meaningful and authentic to consumers,” Apaliski said. “Seeing Bisquick in one of your favorite shows is proof that General Mills brands already have a place in culture—they are a natural part of America’s past and present.”
Tracking ‘the tiger’
It’s been three years since viewers have been able to watch a new version of Fargo, with critics at Rolling Stone calling season five “a return to form,” and USA Today declaring the show “finally great again.” It scored 95% approval on Rotten Tomatoes.
Temple, perhaps better known for comedy in Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso, drove the season with her standout performance as a battered woman who escaped her abuser and made a new life for herself, only to run into violent complications later. The lethal gun for hire, a kilt-wearing supernatural being named Ole Munch, nicknamed her “the tiger.”
Superfans included some of the Pereira O’Dell team who were “so excited to see our worlds collide,” Apaliski said, as Bisquick became not just a prop, but also a peace offering in the finale. The scene—unforgettably tense as Dot tries to charm her way out of a violent death—spawned a campaign and product no one likely saw coming.
“There’s an incredible amount of iconography from the show that we could’ve pulled from for this design, but ultimately, we wanted to pay homage to Dot—as all Fargo fans know, there’s nothing or no one more iconic than Juno Temple’s Dot,” Apaliski said. “And with that, Dot’s Tiger Biscuits Limited Edition Box was born.”
