The power of honesty.

"That's too negative. We need something more positive."

You will hear this all the time in your advertising career, as a writer but also as an advertising person in general. I would often hear it when I showed clients the part of our lives that we don’t see on Instagram.

You know, our actual lives rather than our 'amazing' lives.?

I liked to show people being absentminded, or dumb, or selfish, or nervous, or irresponsible, or less-than-date-night ready. Their human side, in other words. And when the inevitable 'that's negative' comment came after the creative presentation, I’d say: “Well, negative is one word for it. But I prefer to call it what it really is: truth.”

Because no one is perfect.

Human beings are all various degrees of flawed. And when brands embrace those flaws in ourselves, it can make them look like they actually understand the people they're talking to. It looks less like spin, and more like truth.

Let’s take the most famous tagline of all time: Just do it.

For every 1000 CMOs who would kill to have a line like that anchoring their brand, I can count on one finger the number who would have approved it when it was first shown to them.

"Just do it" is what I say to my kids when they’re on their third excuse as to why they can’t take out the garbage. "Just do it" is what our dear CFO Joanna said to me every Friday when I was explaining why I hadn't done that week's timesheet.

"Just do it" is what you say to lazy people.

It could have been so, so easy to kill that line because it’s 'negative'. But Phil Knight (the client) and Dan Wieden (the writer) understood the power of the truth behind it.

They understood that for an athlete (and as Nike puts it, an athlete is 'anyone with a body') "Just do it" is what you need to hear when you're sitting on the couch thinking about going for that run/spin class/pick up game/gym session. But thinking and doing are two very different things, and "Just do it" is that kick in the ass that we all need to get moving.

Can you imagine what that line would have turned into had Knight said "Can we make it more positive?" I can. Be unstoppable. You rule. Own it. No limits. Make your own destiny. Today's the day. You are what you will. Be the change. As amazing as you are. You can do it, we can help. Anyone getting chills? Me neither.

So Nike said we're all lazy. This campaign said we're all weird.

The Egg Farmers of Canada have been trying to get people to eat eggs at meals other than breakfast for decades. But it's been a tough road. For some reason, Canadians just can't look at eggs and not see breakfast. So in 2020, they did what brands never, ever, EVER do. They went nuclear honest.

They blamed the consumer.

Not many brands can get away with saying "it's not us, it's you." But with eggs: it is us. Thinking of eggs only for breakfast is idiotic. So they called us on it, and launched the 'weird' campaign with one of my favourite 15 second spots of all time.

Much respect to the agency that made this work, but a massive tip of the cap to the clients who bought it - the ones who didn't say "Let's not call the consumer weird. That's really insulting."

The thing is: people will accept their flaws if they are true. (And of course, presented back to them with insight and finesse.)

Advertising doesn't need to be a high school commencement speech where we are all going to live out our fabulous dreams. We don't need to be told how wonderful we are, or how wonderful life is. Particularly when a glance at your morning newsfeed shows that the world is everything but perfect.

So we can say that much of Motherhood is a slog, like P&G did with this work.

We can call out our selfish side like this Harvey Nichols holiday campaign did.

We can, as this Kruger Paper Products ad did, say that life is a total shit show.

And we can say that childhood is really tough as Ragu and their agency did with this campaign, where they called out the wonder years for what they really are: confusing, anxious, and on days when you stumble into Mom and Dad's bedroom when the door's closed, kind of traumatic.

By embracing the more honest parts of our lives (aka. the 'negative' stuff), we can actually connect with people. As Dos Equis did with perhaps the most honest selling line in advertising ever:

“I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.”

This was such a spectacular campaign, it’s hard to imagine how daring that line actually was. So let’s break it down. For one, Dos Equis had the stones to acknowledge that however much you like beer, sometimes you prefer a scotch or a glass of wine. Sometimes, you just want something different.

In the marketing world, this is strategic heresy.

To acknowledge that there are other good options out there? You just don’t do that. But they did.

And then they doubled down by saying that when the Most Interesting Man in the World does choose beer, he prefers Dos Equis. Prefers. He doesn’t insist or demand Dos Equis, he just prefers it. ?“Oh, no Dos Equis? Ok, uhhh, what else you got? Bud? Sure.”

But it worked. Because the agency and the clients had the guts to call a ‘negative’ what it really is: the honest truth.

And couldn't the world use a bit more of that?

I'll leave you with this little fantasy of mine. I'm at the front of the boardroom, just having presented some new work to a client. The CMO pauses dramatically, then looks me in the eye and says: "Angus, that's too bullshit-ty. We need something more honest."

Credits:

P&G "Best Job in the World", Agency: Wieden + Kennedy (Portland)

Harvey Nichols "Sorry, I Spent it on Myself" Agency: adam&eveDDB (London)

Kruger Products "Unapologetically Human", Agency: Broken Heart Love Affair (Toronto)

Ragu "Long Day of Childhood", Agency: Barton F. Graf (New York)

Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man in the World", Agency: Havas Worldwide (New York)

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