The Laughing Cow stops laughing for the first time in more than 100 years

Key Takeaways

• The Laughing Cow has replaced its famous smiling mascot with a serious expression on select US packs.

• It is the first time the cow has stopped laughing since the brand launched in 1921.

• Bel Brands has not yet explained why, directing fans to TheNotLaughingCow.com for updates.

• The change appears on Creamy Original cheese wedges, the brand's website and its social channels.

For more than a century, the red cow on The Laughing Cow's packaging has been grinning at shoppers. This week, she stopped.

Bel Brands USA has swapped the brand's famously cheerful mascot for a noticeably serious version on select packs of The Laughing Cow Creamy Original cheese wedges, as well as across its website and social media. There is no new flavour, recipe or explanation yet, just a cow who clearly has something on her mind.

The unsmiling cow started quietly appearing on select packs of The Laughing Cow's Creamy Original cheese wedges across the US on 22 September. Shoppers who reached for their usual box found themselves face to face with a mascot who looked, for the first time in living memory, as though she'd rather not talk about it. Anyone who went looking for answers online was met by a pop-up on the brand's usual website, sending them to TheNotLaughingCow.com. There, a short message explains that after more than 100 years, The Laughing Cow has stopped laughing, before adding the four words nobody ever wants to hear: "We need to talk."

The change hasn't stopped at the supermarket shelf, either. The serious-faced cow has been spotted in everyday places like diners and parks, while the brand's Instagram, TikTok and Facebook accounts have all taken on her new, rather more sombre look. For anyone worried that something more fundamental has changed, Bel Brands has been quick to reassure fans that the cheese inside the packs is exactly the same as it's always been. It's only the expression on the front that has had a rethink.

As for why she's stopped smiling, Bel Brands is keeping that firmly to itself for now. Chief Marketing Officer Jamee Pearlstein has only hinted that "whatever finally got to her must be worth talking about," adding that the brand will "let her explain when she's ready." That leaves fans free to fill the silence with their own theories until the big reveal arrives.

Changing the face of a mascot that people have recognised for more than a century does carry some risks. As Startup Insider Edge's round-up of the most expensive rebrands in history points out, the real cost of changing how a brand looks often isn't the design work itself, it's the recognition that disappears the moment customers can no longer spot a familiar product on the shelf.

When you think about failed rebrands, most marketers will often think of Tropicana. The brand spent $35 million replacing its famous orange-with-a-straw carton with a cleaner, more generic design, only to watch sales fall by 20% within two months and lose around $50 million in revenue as shoppers walked straight past the juice they had been buying for years.

The Laughing Cow has been careful to avoid that trap. Instead of redesigning the packaging, it has kept almost everything exactly where shoppers expect it to be, from the red cow and the familiar colours to the round box itself, and changed only the one small detail that people will notice straight away: her expression. That means the brand gets the attention and conversation that usually comes with a rebrand, without the risk of loyal customers failing to find it. The knowing "We need to talk" message then makes it clear this is a character having a moment, rather than a brand turning its back on the cheerful cow people love.

Why The PR Insider loves it

We love how little The Laughing Cow has had to change to get everyone talking. After 105 years of relentless cheerfulness, a single serious face feels oddly unsettling, and the "We need to talk" line is exactly the right mix of dramatic and funny. We are now very invested in finding out what has upset her.

SOURCES

[1] PR Newswire