Astro Makes Its Super Bowl Debut with a New Product ‘Innovation.’

Every year during The Big Game, Canadian football fans devour over 80 million hot wings. With hot sauces like “Pain,” “Death,” and “Insanity,” that’s a lot of scorched mouths. This year, Astro Original is stepping into The Big Game spotlight with an ‘innovative’ new product to soothe the spice—Astro Cooling Sauce. It’s the world’s first sauce for cooling spicy mouths. 

Limited-edition Astro Cooling Sauce is made with the same simple and creamy ingredients as Astro Original Balkan Yogurt. It looks like Astro Original. It tastes like Astro Original. Because, well, it is Astro Original—just with a saucy new name for The Big Game.

“For over 50 years, Canadians have thought of Astro as more of a breakfast staple,” says Lauren McCrindle, Co-CCO at The Hive. “But plain yogurt is actually very versatile. And is a tried-and-true way to soothe spicy foods. This ‘innovation’ will make people think about an iconic Canadian brand in a new way during a massive cultural moment. We’re thrilled with how this campaign came together.”

To defeat the heat of even the spiciest wings, Astro Cooling Sauce is going head-to-head with Toronto’s most iconic wing spot, Duff’s Famous Wings. The Toronto restaurant is home to some of the city’s spiciest sauces, including ‘Armageddon’ and ‘Death.’ 

Astro and The Hive created the campaign to give Canadians a way to add Canadian products to their Super Bowl spreads this year. They also teamed up with Craft PR to tap into some of Toronto’s most enthusiastic food and sports content creators. Select influencers received an exclusive hand-delivered game-day package, featuring a pound of Duff’s wings alongside a limited-edition tub of Astro Cooling Sauce—giving them the ultimate hot-and-cool experience for Super Bowl weekend.

The team at The Hive also created a campaign film to promote Astro Cooling Sauce to a mass audience. Set to a playfully tongue-in-cheek classical score, the film shows mouth-scorching hot sauce as the sinister foil of The Big Game, then introduces Astro Cooling Sauce as the way for Canadians to soothe the spice this Sunday.

This is part of a broader brand strategy to demonstrate Astro’s versatility to Canadian consumers. “For over half a century, Lactalis Canada's Astro Original has remained true to its roots, offering Canadians 100% natural yogurt crafted with just three simple ingredients: Canadian milk, cream, and cultures” says Burhan Khan, VP of Marketing at Lactalis Canada. “On this day, as Canadians seek relief from spicy wings, Astro is standing by ready to cool and soothe your taste buds."

Can’t get your hands on this very limited-edition product? No sweat. Since Astro Cooling Sauce is Astro Original, football fans across Canada can find it in their fridge or pick up a tub at their local grocery store. Same simple ingredients, saucy new name.