Going Smokeless: How Snoop and Solo Stove Lit Up the Internet
Introduction
Going Smokeless – How Snoop and Solo Stove Lit Up the Internet
What We Did
The Moment That Stopped the Internet
In November 2023, cultural icon Snoop Dogg shocked his 129 million followers by announcing he was “giving up smoke.” The post—deliberately vague and heartfelt in tone—quickly went viral, sparking confusion, speculation, and thousands of headlines.
Four days later, the curtain dropped: Snoop hadn’t quit smoking—he’d gone smokeless with Solo Stove.
It turned out to be one of the most viral brand reveals of the year.
Behind the Scenes: Coordinated, Confidential, and Ready to Move Fast
Weeks earlier, the Purple Orange team was pulled in to manage media under a strict embargo ahead of the now-famous internet prank. We wanted to curate genuine surprise and shock among the news and celebrity media communities, while preparing commerce-oriented media to move quickly with Solo Stove x Snoop collab product details, affiliate information, and branded photography immediately following the brand unveiling the Monday following the famous announcement.
Our objective:
- Engineer surprise among top-tier celebrity and news outlets
- Equip commerce and affiliate media with the tools to act immediately following the reveal
- Prepare narrative control for both the stunt and the product drop
We quietly curated embargoed press kits, coordinated with high-performing affiliate publishers, and staged a mass email plan to deploy the moment the reveal went live. Media monitoring was activated to catch, categorize, and amplify every earned impression from the initial announcement through the brand rollout.
The Reaction: Bigger Than Anticipated
The stunt, conceived by the Solo Stove brand marketing team in creative collaboration with The Martin Agency, ended up stopping the internet with shock and anticipation. Deliberately vague, the post by Snoop simply stated that he was “giving up smoke” after discussing it with friends and family. While he asked for people to respect his privacy, rumors started circulating as to why. The impact exceeded expectations. Snoop’s initial “giving up smoke” post was picked up by The Associated Press, NPR’s Morning Edition, and over 285 major media outlets. Local news stations, talk shows, and late-night hosts riffed on the announcement, fueling speculation and viral spread.
The campaign gained so much momentum that Snoop’s own publicist requested the reveal be moved up—a testament to the internet’s frenzy. We advised Solo Stove to hold firm to the original timeline, allowing tension (and media value) to peak.
The Reveal
When the partnership was finally unveiled on Monday, November 20, Purple Orange activated the full PR machine. Thanks to the groundwork laid during the embargo, commerce media published swiftly with accurate product info, affiliate links, and branded assets. The Snoop x Solo Stove campaign was a masterclass in creative misdirection paired with disciplined PR execution. While the stunt itself stole headlines, the real win was the careful planning behind the scenes that ensured not just attention—but performance.
Purple Orange’s ability to remain agile, embargo-secure, and commerce-ready turned a four-day internet mystery into measurable marketing success.
Local news outlets covered the announcement as legitimate news. They were later forced to cover the brand reveal as a factual correction, resulting in a huge 2nd-wave of media coverage a few days later.
Pop Culture Resonance.
The stunt permeated pop culture to the degree that it was a trending phrase on Google, and the NY Times Crossword deemed the stunt a big enough event that it was worthy of inclusion as a clue in their popular daily crossword.
Controlling the Narrative.
We coordinated the backstory about how the stunt came together with Solo Brands CEO, John Merris, and AdAge.