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‘Brand Advocates’ at Work: Columbia Students Are Stealing Nutella

NutellaHazelnut…chocolate…spread…mmm. Did three words ever go so well together? Who cares that it’s “not a real breakfast” or that it’s not healthy at all–it’s delicious! In fact, Nutella–the famous Italian stuff that takes any bread product from dry to amazing with a couple of well-placed smears–may be a little too delicious for Columbia University students.

Ever since New York’s Ivy League institution began serving Nutella in its cafeteria, these hungry scholars have been eating as much as 100 pounds of it every day–according to the Columbia Spectator, their hazelnut addiction costs the school an estimated $5000 per week!

But that’s not all. Nutella is so popular that quite a few students have been breaking the school’s sacred honor code by stealing it from the cafeteria and storing it in their dorm rooms or even–gasp–letting it go to waste. We smell a crackdown coming on!

No one is threatening to kill Columbia’s Nutella supply and spark a campus-wide freakout, but the controversy has sparked a debate about pricing, with dining services now “hesitant to offer other ‘luxury’ items, like lobster tails, due to similarly high anticipated demand.”

Wait, lobster tails in a school cafeteria? Let’s ponder that one for a moment…

Back to the point, this is all great publicity for the brand. Note to Nutella’s social media managers: don’t let this story slip through the cracks. It’s natural advertising! These Ivy Leaguers are “brand advocates” and they don’t even know it!

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