It’s another beautiful day in the surf when, from a distance, beachgoers see some small flying machines decked out like chickens and cows. The contraptions sure look benign, and they come bearing food. But … they’re drones! Everybody duck?

Japanese food giant Nissin has taken to the sky to promote a product, Cup Noodles, that’s more associated with bottom feeding than aerial adventure, in the U.S. at least. The company’s ad agency, Dentsu Brazil, created the 2 ½-minute video, released this week to a quick half-million views on YouTube.

The stunt dovetails with the ad agency’s ongoing millennial-targeted work in Brazil that includes an action sports series on MTV. The show, co-produced with the cable channel, carries the Cup Noodles name and packs in as many mentions and beauty shots of the product as possible.

Dentsu says on its website that the series has translated to “1,800 minutes of branded entertainment” so far, representing the first TV appearance for Cup Noodles in that country. The number of Facebook fans there has increased 108% as a result, and sales jumped by 6 million cups of salty soup, according to the agency.

The new video follows the popular path of the show, shooting surfers, skateboarders and highliners out risking life and limb against lush native backdrops. All of the sudden, drones drop from the sky to offer the extreme athletes piping hot Styrofoam cups of ramen because, as the ad says, “you never know when you’ll get hungry.”

If that’s not genuine surprise from the folks on the ground, it’s a reasonable facsimile.

For such a lowly product –- known in the U.S. for its bargain-basement price and ubiquity at dollar chain stores and college dorms –- its global advertising over the years sure has soared. In decades past, the brand favored pun-filled animation and iconic spokesmen like Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Brown. It even went to the International Space Station for a series of ads dubbed “No Borders.”