The latest developments in Utah’s “Cookie Wars” include a statement about a lawsuit and a video response.
Dirty Dough released a video on Wednesday making fun of the lawsuit that Crumbl Cookies filed against them. On Monday, Crumbl released a statement about the lawsuit, but did not respond to a request by the Deseret News for comment.
Dirty Dough releases new video
On Wednesday, Dirty Dough released a video that satirically mentions components of the lawsuit, like cookies in rectangular boxes and cookies that have sprinkles on them.
“We even address the whimsy design we are being accused of stealing,” Dirty Dough CEO and founder Bennett Maxwell said.
Dirty Dough marketing strategy
Maxwell told the Deseret News that he’s been active on Facebook talking about the lawsuit. This has marked Dirty Dough’s whole strategy: the company has used the lawsuit to launch a marketing campaign.
The Deseret News also spoke with Adam Stoker, CEO of EKR, which is a Utah-based holistic marketing service. EKR is a small company with 52 employees that does full-service marketing for companies like Megaplex Theatres, Utah Valley University, JustServe and Click Lease. It is also the marketing company for Dirty Dough.
Stoker told me that the agency’s goal was “to control the narrative and own the term ‘Utah Cookie Wars.’” They saw an opportunity with the lawsuit.
He said that after looking at the court of public opinion and reviewing the lawsuit that Maxwell publicly linked to on his LinkedIn page, “we knew we could do something a little crazy.”
Stoker described how the whole team quickly got together at 6 p.m. on a Friday night. Then, by Tuesday morning, they had the marketing strategy drawn up: the billboards.
All along I-15, these billboards said things like, “Our Cookies Don’t Crumble with Competition” or “Cookies So Good, We’re Being Sued”— all with the hashtag #UtahCookieWars.
EKR had been working with Dirty Dough on branding for a while, and by the time the lawsuit became public, Stoker said they knew they had to do a campaign that was visually within the Dirty Dough brand.
Crumbl sued Dirty Dough and Crave
This year, Crumbl Cookies sued two companies: Dirty Dough and Crave. In 2021, Crumbl sued a bakery in Corona, California, for copyright infringement because the bakery is called Crumbles Cookies. According to Crumbles Cookies’ website, they were founded in 2005, while Crumbl Cookies first opened in 2017.
Family members grab a cookie after leaving Crumbl in Lehi on Friday, Dec. 21, 2018.
Laura Seitz, Deseret News
What’s next in the Cookie Wars?
The lawsuit is still ongoing and not yet resolved. Maxwell said, “We can all be friends in the cookie industry.”