Walkers has hit back against London-based snack brand Olly’s with a cease and desist letter, following a PR billboard stunt that saw the rival company poke fun at the crisp industry giant.

Last week, Olly’s launched its debut out-of-home (OOH) campaign with cleverly placed asterisks in messages that read: “Jog on Wa*kers, There’s a New Snack in Town”.

The tongue-in-cheek ‘War on Crisps’ campaign aimed to playfully call out Walkers for contributing to the ‘unhealthy’ crisp industry and highlight Olly’s healthier snack products.

Despite founder Olly Hiscocks stating that the campaign was intended with “obviously no offence”, Walkers has demanded the removal of the OOH and digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertisements.

Frito-Lay, which owns Walkers, argues that the advertising campaign “denigrates” and “tarnishes” its brand reputation, as Olly’s’ use of terms such as ‘WA*KERS’, ‘French Fails’ and ‘WTFsits’ mimics Frito-Lay’s’ own usage of the ‘WALKERS’, ‘French Fries’ and ‘WOTSITS’ brand names.

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The Walkers cease-and-desist letter has asked Olly’s to remove all references to “WA*KERS”, “French Fails”, and “WTFsits” and any other FLTC brand, across all channels – including print, signage, digital and social media.

“We knew that this campaign might deep fry a certain crisp brand’s potatoes, but we didn’t think it would happen quite as quickly – in my opinion it’s a big -Oll compliment that they feel so threatened by us,” said Hiscocks.

“What I love about being a small, family-run business, is that we can have fun with our campaigns and take risks like these; whilst it’s a shame to take them down so soon, we have plenty more tricks up our sleeve, so the battle is by no means over!”