Marketing textbook, chapter 8

With a number of Trojan parcels, DHL has turned its competitors into involuntary advertising media for DHL's typical yellow colour and advertising slogan.

In several major cities in Europe and the USA, particularly large parcels were covered on the outside with a special thermal film that changes colour depending on the temperature. By cooling down to freezing point, the parcels were completely black on the outside when they were accepted by the competitors. Over the course of the delivery rounds, however, the boxes warmed up again in the vehicles and took on the typical DHL parcel design in yellow with the large and clearly visible red lettering „DHL IS FASTER“.

Because the parcels were light but very unwieldy, and also went to delivery addresses that were difficult to reach, the drivers from competitors such as UPS, DPD and TNT had to struggle with the advertising tours for DHL in the middle of the public eye. Upon arrival, the humorous to severely annoyed parcel carriers were filmed and the funniest scenes were then edited into a commercial for DHL. The idea for the perfidious advertising campaign was developed for DHL by the Stuttgart branch of the advertising agency Jung von Matt.

Sources:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAdlKx98rAw (as at 10 January 2026).