Sweethearts helps Gen Z make real relationship commitments like the ones on its candies

A year after packaging up its blurry, misprinted candies in boxes to reflect Gen Z-ers’ stereotypically confusing relationships, Sweethearts is going the other direction this Valentine’s Day—celebrating Gen Z-ers’ hopes for more defined relationships with “Commitment Hearts.” Created by Tombras, the “Commitment Hearts” campaign is all about committing to the messages on the candies. Consumers can now visit sweetheartscandies.com, scan the candy pieces with their mobile device and take real actions to make the messages on them come true. For example, scanning a “Move In?” candy takes you to a moving company’s website (Piece of Cake Moving & Storage); scanning “Marry Me” links to Courtly, a site to obtain a marriage license; and scanning “4Ever Ever?” leads to a site to buy matching heart-shaped headstones. A grizzled old dude, whose vaguely menacing attitude is both amusing and a little frightening, promotes the effort in a pair of videos. Even if the functionality at work here is more of a gag than an actually useful service, the campaign as a whole does a nice job—as last year’s did—of modernizing a brand that’s always been beloved but which has felt somewhat stuck in the past. The insight driving the hyperbolic campaign is that many Gen Z-ers and millennials, despite a reputation for not taking relationships as seriously as prior generations, really do want to commit to a serious relationship (39%) or fall in love for the first or even final time (34%). “We’ve come full circle from embracing ambiguity with last year’s Situationships Boxes to helping today’s singles define their relationships with America’s much-loved Valentine’s Day candy,” said Evan Brock, VP of marketing for Spangler Candy Company. More Creativity coverage from Ad Age: Sign up for our daily Creativity newsletter to see the best stories of the day.

Sweethearts helps Gen Z make real relationship commitments like the ones on its candies

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