Featured Image Credit: NASA
Topics: Social Media, US Food
Ben Williams
Nutella is not the first thing most people expect to come out of a historic Moon mission, but Artemis II has somehow turned the chocolate hazelnut spread into one of the most talked-about food brands of the week.
While NASA’s crew headed for the far side of the Moon and clocked up a record-breaking distance from Earth, viewers online became distracted for a very different reason. It involved the spacecraft kitchen, a familiar jar, and a reaction brands usually dream about rather than receive by accident.
The whole thing unfolded during a livestream, four minutes before the Artemis II surpassed the 1970 distance record set by the Apollo 13, which was 248,655 miles from Earth. The moment triggered thousands of comments and gave Ferrero the kind of sudden attention that a lot of money usually has to buy. By the time social media had finished joking about impossible product placement, the mission had already picked up one of its strangest viral moments.
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What actually did it was a jar of Nutella floating through the Orion spacecraft in zero gravity, drifting into view with its label facing the camera so perfectly that it looked staged. It was not, of course, and that is exactly why people could not get enough of it.
After seeing being shared by various outlets, like CNN on Instagram, one user joked, as noted by People: “The greatest free advert in history.”
Another added, shared by Fox News: “Nutella may have just got the greatest ad… ALL FOR FREE!” A third comment called it: “the most bada-- free ad in maybe human history.”
Nutella itself wasted no time leaning into the moment. Sharing the clip on X (formerly Twitter), the brand wrote: “Honored to have traveled further than any spread in history. Taking spreading smiles to new heights.”
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center joined the fun too, posting: “Enjoying sweet treats while our Artemis crew takes sweet photos of the Moon!” Michael Lindsey, the president and chief business officer of Nutella's parent company, Ferrero North America, said the company is ‘over the moon that the world's best space explorers chose the world's best spread.’
The funniest part is that Nutella was not just there for the cameras. Reporting around the Artemis II menu said the spread was one of 189 unique items selected for the ten-day mission. NASA also explained that personal preference matters when planning food for space, because familiar meals can help support morale as long as they still meet the mission’s nutritional, food safety, and operational requirements.