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This week was our first time seeing ads on fortune cookie fortunes — and we weren’t alone.

A now-private tweet about the ad above prompted a lot of responses like “Marketers have gone too far this time!” (But with more cursing.) 

Here’s the thing: This isn’t new!

A brief history of fortune cookie ads

• 1968: Robert F. Kennedy used fortunes to promote his presidential campaign and foretell his victory. Our favorite? “Millions will love you. Vote KENNEDY.”
• 2010: OpenFortune, a platform dedicated to placing ads in fortune cookies, is founded. 
• 2013: A Manhattan City Council candidate promotes his campaign via cookie, collabing with two Chinese restaurants in his district.
• 2018: A photo of a fortune cookie ad from Capital One (and OpenFortune) gets 1.7K RTs. Caption: “Ad blockers ain’t got nothing on the nyc take out market.”
• 2021: Extra and OpenFortune run the first fortune cookie ad we’ve seen with a QR code. 

Our takeaway?

Fortune cookie ads are a marketing rarity: a long-standing channel that still gets social traction for existing. According to OpenFortune, 5.9% of recipients share their fortunes on social.

Those shares can veer negative, though.

 “NOTHING IS BEAUTIFUL NOR INNOCENT ANYMORE,” one recipient tweeted about promotional fortune. Caps hers!