WATCH: Oreo’s Snappy Super Bowl Blackout Ad

Oreo scored big during the Super Bowl blackout with a timely tweet.

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Oreo's Super Bowl blackout ad

As the lights went out during last night’s Super Bowl, the electricians scrambled, the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers tried to keep their muscles warm, fans dug into some 47 layer dip and Oreo jumped into action.

In the midst of the blackout, the company behind the popular cookie rushed out a timely blackout ad via Twitter:

The ad features the caption “Power out? No problem” reminding Oreo eaters that you can “dunk in the dark.” The timeliness and pithiness made the pitch funnier, more effective and undoubtedly millions of dollars cheaper than Oreo’s actual Super Bowl commercial, which you can watch below and in NewsFeed’s roundup of the Best and Worst Commercials of Super Bowl XLVII. The ad spread across Twitter like wildfire, and has since been retweeted more than 14,000 times. Oreo posted the same image to their Facebook page, where it has gotten more than 20,000 likes.

(MORE: WATCH: When the Lights Went Out at Super Bowl XLVII)

So how did the cookie company pull of the advertising coup? Oreo’s ad agency 360i told Buzzfeed that they had gathered Oreo executives together in advance, just in case something in the Super Bowl sparked an advertising idea. With all the key players in one room, they were able to capitalize on social media’s nimbleness and acted quickly. “We had a mission control set up at our office with the brand and 360i, and when the blackout happened, the team looked at it as an opportunity,” agency president Sarah Hofstetter told BuzzFeed. “Because the brand team was there, it was easy to get approvals and get it up in minutes.”

Undoubtedly other ad agencies and companies are paying attention to this unexpected advertising coup, which could mean more responsive, cheaper and funnier ads in the future.

Watch Oreo’s other (and more expensive) Super Bowl ad here:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/6kMWLYYcAYw]

MORE: The Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials of 2013

MORE: 100 Years of Oreos: 9 Things You Didn’t Know About the Iconic Cookie