On 30 March 2026, Oatside's Vietnam operation posted a genuine-looking LinkedIn job listing for a Chief Marketing Officer role based in Ho Chi Minh City. Nearly 200 marketing professionals applied, submitting real CVs and cover letters during what applicants described as a difficult hiring market.
Five days later, Oatside revealed the listing as a marketing stunt: the 'CMO' was a 4-year-old child influencer, part of a 'Chief Milk Officer' campaign built around the brand's product. The reveal triggered anger rather than the intended charm — critics said using real job applications as the mechanism for a punchline was a misuse of jobseekers' time and data, especially in Vietnam's tighter hiring climate, and some consumers said they would boycott the brand or switch to competitors.
Oatside's marketing director apologized publicly, acknowledged the campaign had caused frustration, and confirmed that all collected applicant data had been deleted. The brand paused the campaign and said it would add clearer disclaimers and an internal review process for future marketing stunts.
The reveal swapped the CMO role for a 4-year-old influencer, but the cost was real: applicants' time and data, triggering boycotts and an apology.
The stunt required real people to spend real time on a real application before being let in on the joke — the setup extracted a genuine cost from participants for the punchline.
Nobody weighed how collecting real CVs and personal data for a prank would read once revealed, in a job market applicants already called difficult.
The campaign optimized for the surprise of the reveal without a plan for the goodwill of everyone not in on it until the end — the group that mattered most.
A prank that uses real applicants' time, CVs and hope as its punchline isn't charming once revealed — it reads as exploitation, however clever the concept looked in the planning room.
Oatside apologized, deleted the collected applicant data, and paused the campaign while introducing stricter internal review for future marketing efforts.
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