Ricky Dillon, Andrea Russett Star In Sour Patch Kids’ Scripted Series

A week ago, Mondelez (formerly known as Kraft Foods) announced a massive upfront deal with Google through which it will spend a reported $200 million on YouTube. At the same time, it joined YouTube’s brand partner program to create content for its Sour Patch Kids brand. A series born from that partnership has now taken shape: Sour Patch is the brand behind Breaking Out, a scripted series starring YouTube and Vine personalities.

According to Adweek, Breaking Out is”being billed as the first branded show to cast a group of YouTube stars as scripted characters.” The group of YouTube stars in question includes O2L member Ricky Dillon and Andrea Russett, who vlogs on her GETTOxFABxFOREVER channel. The other two stars of the series, Chris Collins and Brent Rivera, are better known for their work on Vine, where they each have millions of followers.

Breaking Out is a high school series that will discuss teenage life while also including plenty of references to the Sour Patch Kids brand. All of these stars are very familiar with high school life; Dillon is the oldest at 22, and the other three are all teenagers. All four of them are Fullscreen

partners; the multi-channel network is working with Sour Patch Kids for the series.

As Adweek’s report explains, Mondelez is hoping to spread the series by word-of-mouth with additional support from paid media. To accomplish this goal, Breaking Out is relying on the captive audiences of its four stars, who will promote the series and post related videos on their own channels.

This is the first step in Mondelez’s ambitious plans on YouTube. Sour Patch Kids is expected to release the first episode today, so we will update this post when it goes live.

UPDATE: Here is the first episode, posted to Russett’s YouTube channel: