Two Truths and A Lie: Why the Weirdest Ads Work (and Yours Don't)

Summary

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Brain Driven Brands with Sarah Levinger

Episode: Two Truths and A Lie: Why the Weirdest Ads Work (and Yours Don't)
Air Date: October 28, 2025
Host: Sarah Levinger
Special Guest: Nate Legos

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the world of strange, conceptual, and even baffling advertising, exploring why the weirdest ads from massive brands (and across decades) often work far better than what most e-commerce brands produce today. Through a game of "Two Truths and a Lie" with a focus on offbeat 1980s campaigns, Sarah and Nate unpack the neuromarketing and psychological tactics underlying these legendary (and legendarily odd) ad strategies—revealing actionable ideas for today’s brands.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Weird Ads Work: The Psychology of Curiosity

• Open Loops & Semantic Closure

  • Humans are wired to resolve incomplete information—ads that create a sense of mystery or ambiguity (an "open loop") force our brains to fill in gaps, making the brand stickier and more memorable.
  • Sarah Levinger: "Semantic closure has to do with the fact that, like, humans really need to close open loops." [07:40]
  • Example: Silk Cut's minimalist campaign (just a purple silk with a cut, no brand, no product) forced viewers to seek answers, turning confusion into brand obsession.

• Contrast with Modern Ads

  • Many modern digital ads lack the courage or creative risk-taking seen in the past, but today's tools (like AI) make conceptual experimentation easier than ever.
  • Sarah: "If you're creating AI ads, you can create these strange, bizarre concepts that have nothing to do with your brand... both worked incredibly well for brands because they drive a little, like, mystery. It's metaphorical." [08:59]

2. 1980s Ad Showdown—"Two Truths and a Lie" Game

Sarah orchestrates three hilarious and surprising quiz rounds, using 1980s ad history to illustrate key tactics.

Round 1: Overly Conceptual Ads ([04:31]–[09:00])

• Ads Discussed:
  • Fake: Sony’s "Sound of Silence" (a man discovers the emptiness of life before Walkman – not real!)
  • Real: Parco’s egg ad—Japanese department store spot of a woman eating a hard-boiled egg in silence for 90 seconds.
  • Real: Silk Cut’s mysterious, product-free purple silk ad.
• Insight:
  • Bizarre ads work by being incomplete—forcing audiences to mentally participate.
  • Sarah: "It was memorable enough that people just remember this random lady eating an egg… the only department store that would be bold enough to do this is this specific one." [10:47]
  • Modern application: These tactics create powerful brand recall and conversation.

Round 2: Mascot Madness ([12:11]–[19:10])

• Ads Discussed:
  • Real: Burger King's "Where's Herb?"—$40M campaign around a fictional character who'd never eaten at Burger King.
  • Real: California Raisins’ claymation singing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine."
  • Fake: McDonald’s "Grimace for President" (did NOT happen!)
• Insight:
  • Introducing a skeptic or outsider (like “Herb”) can galvanize existing fans while drawing in the undecided—if the narrative is properly closed.
  • Nate: "Start your hero's journey with someone who doesn't know your brand or is actively skeptical about your brand, and then show the conversion. I love that." [19:10]
  • Sarah: "You opened a loop... You just never closed it." [17:59]
  • Application: Test UGC and creative where a character doubts the product and is won over.

Round 3: Dark & Dramatic ([19:33]–[25:49])

• Ads Discussed:
  • Fake: Pepsi’s "Drink with the Devil" (never existed; would have triggered outrage).
  • Real: Australia’s "Grim Reaper" AIDS awareness campaign—oop: terrifying and "so dark" ad of death bowling humans.
  • Real: DeLorean’s "Live the Dream"—selling the future just as the company was about to collapse.
• Insight:
  • Fear in Advertising:
    • Fear tactics could work in the '80s, but modern audiences are less accepting.
    • Sarah: "You gotta be so careful... The US right now is not in a place where people would tolerate what they did in the 80s very well. So I don't think... fear-based ads are going to run very well." [24:21]

3. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Nate (On 1980s conceptual ads):
  "The Sony Walkman one sounds like a great ad to me. Yeah, that sounds like... And I think it's so true for the 80s too, because, like, today we need the opposite of that ad." [05:31]
• Sarah (On the mysterious Parco ad):
  "It was very minimal, odd, moody kind of a thing. But it was memorable enough that people just remember this random lady eating an egg..." [10:47]
• Nate (On fear tactics):
  "Putting someone selling their soul to the devil on TV in America in the 1980s would have had a bunch of people up in arms about it, probably." [22:11]
• Sarah (On closing open loops):
  "You opened a loop... You just never closed it." [17:59]
• Sarah (On the power of narrative in ads):
  "How you say something matters more than what you say." [25:54]

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Takeaways & Actionable Tactics

• Harness Mystery: Leave ads slightly incomplete; don’t spell everything out—instead, invite the audience to figure it out and mentally participate (open loops/semantic closure).
• Introduce Skeptics: Introduce a protagonist who doubts, tries, and falls in love with your product—model customer skepticism and conversion in your ads.
• Contrast Valence: You can reframe the same facts positively or negatively; how you frame the story (the “vibe”) matters more than the details.
• Don’t Fear the Weird: The most legendary and effective ads are often the ones that feel too odd or risky in the boardroom.
• Beware of Fear Tactics: What played in the 1980s may not play now; tread very carefully with negative or fear-based campaigning in today’s climate.

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Notable Timestamps

• 04:31: Start of Quiz: Overly Conceptual 1980s Ads
• 07:40: Deep dive on "semantic closure" and open loop psychology
• 12:11: Start of Quiz: Mascot Madness
• 17:59: Discussion: Importance of closing open loops in ad storytelling
• 19:33: Start of Quiz: Dark & Dramatic Ads
• 24:21: Sarah on fear-based ads in modern digital advertising
• 25:54: How framing ("valence") shapes audience reaction

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Conclusion

This playful yet deeply insightful episode blends advertising lore with actionable psychology, revealing how the weird, the ambiguous, and the emotionally resonant can transform modern digital brands—if you’re bold and clever enough to use them well. Take these lessons from the ad graveyards (and viral hits) of the past and start brainstorming: How can your next campaign leave viewers just a little mystified or a little skeptical…and desperate to know more?

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Transcript

[A]

Three, two. Welcome back to Brain Driven Brands. It's me, Sarah. Sarah's in at the beach.

[B]

I wish. Oh, my God. You can see Casey.

[A]

Casey is going to make an appearance on this podcast.

[B]

You can see Casey, like, in the reflection. That's literally. I'm so glad that he's like, totally. Because the guy. We've been in Florida for, like, two days, did not wear a shirt first two days he was here.

[A]

Yeah, of course.

[B]

And we're like this cute little neighborhood with all these nice old people. I'm gonna try and get him out of the shop. Don't mind me, people. I'm on vacation. Haven't taken a vacation with my husband by myself for a year. Usually we only take one vacation.

[A]

You have kids?

[B]

A year is not that long.

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

I feel like that's a long time. I mean, granted, we took vacations with our kids this year, but they were, like, with us, so it was kind of just like parenting in another space. This is like, now it's just me and Casey. It feels weird, like, you know, you have a kid now because it's like where if you're not in the room with them or if they're out somewhere, it's just like, I'm forgetting. It feels like you're forgetting my arm or something. Yeah, it's the strangest experience. So, yeah, it's very quiet.

[A]

I went out for the first time, but.

[B]

Oh, did you?

[A]

Saturday, where'd you go having a kid? I went to the local dive bar alone to watch the game. And not in, like, a depressing way. It was fun. But yeah, like, it felt weird. Like, half the time I was there, I was like, my family's not here. This is a weird thing.

[B]

Yes. It really does feel like you're missing a piece of yourself. It's like the strangest experience. And as you get older and your kids get older, you start to enjoy it more because it's like, oh, my God. Woo. I like, I have space to think. Nobody's interrupting my every thought of every single day. But then it's also just strange. Like, we were sitting at the table last night going, we're. Where is everybody?

[A]

Yeah, right?

[B]

This is just odd. Anyway, I'm half enjoying it, half missing them deeply. But, yeah, we are on vacation. And I was like, hey, Nate, you want to do a podcast while I'm on vacation? Monday Podcast business never sleeps is really what it is. Plus, I just like podcast. So I was like, we gotta do it, because I like this podcast.

[A]

So now I know you're about to hit me with a little guessing game quiz. I'm gonna hit you with one first. I didn't tell you I was going to do this.

[B]

Okay. I'm so ready. Let's do it. I'm terrified.

[A]

Is. It's a two part question. You get one point for each answer. Okay.

[B]

What's the odds that I'm going to get this right? Not good.

[A]

First guess, how many. How many bottles of whiskey are on my desk right now. And then how many have been opened and how many?

[B]

This is not a good question to ask because if I get this wrong, I'm either going to pull you as like a raging alcohol y or if I get this incredibly right, that's. I don't know if that's a good thing for you that, like, paints you in a very specific light. All right, let's think. Let's think. How many are on your desk now and how many are open?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

I want to say four on your desk. Two are opened. Is that in the ballpark? Oh, I'll get you. All right.

[A]

There's three on my desk and one is open.

[B]

Okay. See, Stitch?

[A]

So you think I am a little worse.

[B]

The only reason I said 4, though is because I'm trying to think of like, how many Red Bulls are probably on your desk as well. So I think my brain probably equated whiskey and Red Bull. He probably has four items somewhere on the desk.

[A]

Yeah, no, I did. I did clean the desk off from Red Bulls this morning. I think there were six from the last few days.

[B]

Oh, my God. But that's a lot.

[A]

The whiskey is still here, so.

[B]

Dang, dude. Okay, see, I did good on that wall. Sorry.

[A]

Yeah, that's pretty good.

[B]

Sort of good on that one. Would have been so bad if I came back and you were like seven.

[A]

There's like, there's 15. You are bottles that are all open. Actually, half of them are empty. All right, the scheduled quiz.

[B]

All right, so today's quit. Well, it's not really quiz. Today's game is Two Truths that a Lie. Oh, so this is 1980s AD edition. I specifically chose the 80s because I don't think you're gonna know when and.

[A]

Yeah, because I was born in 96.

[B]

Because you were born in 96. But. And plus also, I think these are going to be the most interesting ads you've ever heard of.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

Two of these ads. Real ads. Real ads that actually were ran out in the ether to customers. One of them is not a real ad at all.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And I want to see if you know which one of these is not that. So round one. These are the overly conceptual ads. Are you ready?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Here we go. Let's do it. All right, first ad is by Sony's Walkman. It was called the Sound of Silence ad. It was a 1983 campaign where a man listens to a Walkman, then he takes off his headphones, stands in total silence to hear how empty life was before Sony. That's ad number one. Ad number two, Parko's egg ad was a Japanese department store ad showing a woman peeling and eating a boiled egg in silence for 90 seconds. And that was the entire ad. And are you googling this?

[A]

No, I'm taking notes. I'm taking notes.

[B]

How dare you? Okay. I was like, you are not allowed to Google these. Okay. And number three, the silk cut campaign, a British cigarette ad that showed a purple silk sheet with just a slit in it with no text, no cigarettes, nothing. Viewers just had to decode what the ad was about. Just based on, based upon research. Which one is the lie? One, two, or three?

[A]

All right, the, the Sony Walkman one sounds like a great ad to me. Yeah, that sounds like.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I think it's so true for the 80s too, because, like, today we need the opposite of that ad.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Like, we need the ad when you take your headphones out and actually experience the world around, like the world.

[B]

I agree with this. Somebody go make that ad.

[A]

I think back then you probably needed to tell, like, isn't life boring? Put on headphones, listen to a Walkman. So I think that's a good, real ad.

[B]

I missed my Walkman. That was a good era. All right, all right.

[A]

The, the, the Japanese woman peeling and eating a hard boiled egg for a minute and a half sounds psycho, but I've also, like, seen a little bit of like Japanese content. It's out there.

[B]

Yeah, it is interesting. It's very different.

[A]

So jury's still out on that one for me.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

The cigarette one, that was just a purple kind of silky sheet.

[B]

Yep. Nothing else didn't even show the product.

[A]

Didn'T have their name on it.

[B]

Nothing, man.

[A]

See, like, I know this was like height of like cigarette.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

AD Wars 100%. So that could have been like a great way to differentiate and just like kind of create some curiosity. I am going to say the Sony ad was real. The Walkman was real.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

The cigarette ad is real. I'm saying the egg one is not real.

[B]

Egg one. All right, is that your final answer?

[A]

Final answer.

[B]

Number ad Number one, the sound of silence ad was not real. Dang, that was. Sounds exactly like something a 1980s director would have greenlit, but, like, not real at all. So this is fascinating. The. We'll start with the silk ad. This silk ad read in 1984, and rather than show, like, cigarettes or smoking, which is something that like every other competitor was doing, the campaign showed only this kind of purple silk cloth with a cut in it. They just like sliced a slice on it. Basically minimal, surreal. You had to just figure out it was a cigarette ad. Nobody knew what it was for the longest time until that kind of like, if, you know, you know, crowd came in and they were like, oh, this is obviously the secret brand. So this is kind of like very bold, art focused. The interesting part about this, though, is it uses actually quite a lot of psychology here because they're using processing, fluency, and a little bit of what we call semantic closure. So semantic closure has to do with the fact that, like, humans really need to close open loops. We talk about open loops here on this podcast quite a lot. So if you have a piece of information that's just hanging out there that you're like, what the? Like, give me the rest of it. Like, what's happening? Why didn't you give it to me? People have to go find the information just to close that. So what?

[A]

And then the Japanese woman just ate an egg for a minute.

[B]

Woman just ate an eight for a minute.

[A]

Half.

[B]

I was like, what is this?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yes. And that one too was just. It was information that was incomplete because it was like, why is she eating an egg? And then the ad ended and it was like. And then, like, people had to go figure out why this lady was eating this egg. It was incomplete. So this I find really interesting because you could use this so easily today, especially with AI. If you're creating AI ads, you can create these strange, bizarre concepts that have nothing to do with your brand. I mean, this was literally a purple piece of silk with a cut in it and some weird, like eating a random hard boiled egg. Both of them worked incredibly well for these brands because they, they drive a little, like, mystery. It's metaphorical.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

Like, it has contrast and it's. It's just weird. So the brain has to go figure it out.

[A]

Have you seen anyone doing this? Well today in digital, like, creating that curiosity, creating that open loop to make people think about it? Because I think we can all, like, resonate with the feeling of, like, did you ever, like, want to know a fact? But like you don't have your phone on you so you can't Google it right away.

[B]

Oh, that's the worst.

[A]

And it's all you think about for an hour and then you're like, I gotta figure out what this is like. How do we create that in ads?

[B]

Let's pause for just a minute.

[A]

Prospecting on Meta in 2025 has been a huge pain. Reaching net new people is getting harder and harder and harder. And the only thing Meta seems to care about is rolling out more AI slot features that take away a lot of our controls as advertisers. So brands have been looking for another side and they're turning to otherside. Otherside is an agency that figured out how to turn programmatic advertising into a performance marketing channel. They're able to advertise outside the meta ecosystem, show clear and accurate attribution and they have the ability to prospect and retarget across platforms. So you're able to unlock huge new audiences that aren't like us. They're not chronically on Meta and Instagram. For brain driven brands listeners, they're running a crazy offer right now. They'll run your ads for free for two months to prove to you it works. Then you can either partner ways or continue at their normal affordable retainer. But they're making this risk free and it's a no brainer for you to try. So go to join the other side.com and let them know we sent you.

[B]

And now back to the show. That's a good question. So for these two brands, I found this really interesting because I'm going to go back up and see the egg ad. So this was a department store and, and who ran this ad which I found really, really interesting.

[A]

So they don't sell eggs.

[B]

They don't sell eggs at all. They just sell stuff. And it was very minimal, odd, moody kind of a thing. But it was memorable enough that people just remember this random lady eating an egg and they were like, okay, yeah, I remember the only department store that would be bold enough to do this is this specific one. So I think if you're gonna do this and you're gonna do it well. Cause I can't think of anybody off the top of my head recently, at least that has tried this kind of like, let's run something weird.

[A]

It's super not direct response. I can guarantee a 07 day click return.

[B]

Yeah, you're definitely not gonna get it 100%, which means no one in our.

[A]

Industry is going to try it. But I love the principle.

[B]

The Most recent one that I can think of is a dentist's office. Recently went viral for a skydiving gorilla that fell out of a plane that they made with an AI With. Yeah. And he, like, landed and he broke all his teeth.

[A]

Today we're getting blackout drunk and skydiving. If I die, at least I die doing what I love.

[B]

That I find really interesting because it's still connective. It's not so bizarre that people can't make the leap of, like, okay, a gorilla needs a dentist, just like a human needs a dentist. That's the most recent one that I can think of. That's just really bizarre. Everybody else is trying, but not nailing it very well. So I would love to see somebody test this. This is why I love this. Okay, that was round one. You ready?

[A]

That's just round one.

[B]

Oh, that was round one. We got more.

[A]

Sorry, I thought that was a full episode.

[B]

No, no, no. I have two more rounds if you want to do both. We don't have to do both, but I do have to worry about. Okay, so this is the Mascot Madness years in the 1980s, which. Oh, let me just tell you. If Sarah has, like, a favorite time period of. Of ads, it was these years because, oh, there's something incredible you can do with mascots. That's why Tether. My business has a mascot. That's why everybody should get a mascot. Okay.

[A]

No Little Nate Legos lore. My first dream job was I wanted to be a mascot.

[B]

You did not.

[A]

I want to be, like, a pro sports team mascot. Yeah.

[B]

Which one?

[A]

Any of them.

[B]

Oh, you didn't have, like, a favorite. You weren't trying to be a mascot?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That is interesting. I know quite a lot of women who wanted to be, like, a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. Is that the same?

[A]

That might be the same thing.

[B]

Okay, there you go.

[A]

And then I. I figured out. I don't know, I thought they were, like, the coolest things ever. And then I found out I got to do, like, gymnastics and dance.

[B]

You do pretty freaking in shape. But I mean it. If you are in that particular, like, time type of person, I feel like being a mascot would be so fun. They get paid, I think so to do it.

[A]

And I was like, I can't put this mullet behind a mask. You know, we gotta.

[B]

We gotta get this in front of a camera. Okay. So these. You'll love these. Okay, here we go. So Mascot Madness years ad number one, Burger King's. Where's Herb? This was a $40 million campaign about a man named Herb Who. Who had never eaten at Burger king ever before.

[A]

4.

[B]

Okay, that was Burger King's. Where's her? Ad number two, California raisins. These were singing, dancing, claymation raisins, performing I heard it through the grapevine. And then ad number three, McDonald's grimace for president. Do you know who Grimace is?

[A]

I do, so I know that one's real.

[B]

Okay. Grimace is like the purple whatever he is. This is a 1988 election theme ad where Grimace ran for president of McDonald's land, promising a shake in every cup. Which one of these is a lie?

[A]

All right.

[B]

One, two, out. Number three.

[A]

All right, I'm gonna say McDonald's grimace is real because I've heard of Grimace. An election theme seems on point for the 80s.

[B]

Yeah. Especially for McDonald's. I feel like they ran a couple election ads. Interesting.

[A]

So I liked that. I'm gonna say that's real. The Burger King. Where's Herb? I'll be honest, if you didn't tell me the name was Herb, I would have said, like, this is definitely the real one. But Herb feels like a weird name.

[B]

Herb. Herb.

[A]

Some out on that.

[B]

H E R B. Herb. I wouldn't say Herb. Right.

[A]

It's Herb if it's a guy name it. But I do know that Burger King, like, had some clever campaigns back in the day. I feel like Burger King has the same affliction as Pepsi, where it's like, hey, you're obviously not the premier product here, so you got to get really creative in marketing. And I think they've actually done a decent job at that. And then the last one, the California Raisins.

[B]

Raisins.

[A]

Claymation. They're singing what song?

[B]

They're singing. I heard it through the grapevine.

[A]

This one feels like a little too on the nose to be real. This one feels like Chat GBT gave you fake ad ideas.

[B]

Yeah. You think?

[A]

So I'm gonna lock the raisins one in as the lie.

[B]

Is that your final answer?

[A]

That's it.

[B]

That is incorrect.

[A]

Dang. Okay.

[B]

You're doing so well today. And I'm like, oh, boy. Okay, so according to my research, the lie is actually the grimace 1. The McDonald's grimace, like, election themed ad. Never happened.

[A]

Never happened.

[B]

I feel like it never happened. I feel like that would have made a really freaking good ad, though.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So Clay Nation. California Raisins. Real ad. Burger Kings. Where's Herb? Real ad.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Is that not the weirdest thing you've ever seen?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay, so this I find really interesting, and I'm shocked you haven't seen the claymation raisins because I vividly remember these because they made, like, plastic toys out of them and like.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

And. And they were very weird, but it wasn't creepy. It was just kind of like playful, absurd kind of a thing.

[A]

That's good.

[B]

And that was the reason why they worked. The Herb one is so weird. So BURGER King spent $40 million on this campaign centered around Herb, which was.

[A]

In the 80s, by the way.

[B]

$40 million, that's for the.

[A]

For anyone doing math today, that's $380 million today. I'm pretty sure that's insane.

[B]

Burger King. So it was a fictional character who had never been to Burger King. And the idea was people who had been to Burger King would ask, where's her? Because they expected to see him there, but he wasn't. Think the problem was, though, the concept was like, hella confusing to everybody. Nobody really understood how this linked back to the product. This is the reason why I think this is a great follow up for the first, like, quiz that we had, because that one's all about being weird. Like, just weird things. This one, they're trying to be weird with a point, and it didn't work. This is a great example of like a mystery hero, but it just, it didn't connect.

[A]

It's interesting. I think they were probably right on with like, introducing a character who had never been to Burger King, because again, they're not in first place in the fast food wars of America.

[B]

I love that.

[A]

And I am sure there was a ton of people who were like, no, we go to McDonald's when it's fast food time and that's it. So I love the. The idea of introducing someone who has never been. But then I think you, you probably have to close that in the ad of like. And then they went and couldn't believe how good it was, how cheap it was, how fast it was.

[B]

Yeah, well. And that's where I. I need to go back and watch some more of these ads to see if they had any where he actually went in and tried it. Because that would have been the close. You opened a loop. Like, you're doing a great job. Big brands of opening these loops in the brain. You just never closed it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that's confusing.

[A]

That is a super interesting tactic, though, purposefully introducing someone who doesn't use your product.

[B]

It's a good angle and who is actively skeptical. I know one brand who does this, actually.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Hexclad has recently done this. And the only reason I know this is because I know a lot of the creatives over at Hexagon. One of their internal creative strategists has done a few ads where she acts as if, like, Hexagon's not real. Like, yeah, this can't be good cookware at all. And then she takes it home, demonstrates cooking, and then she becomes, like, converted, basically, in the ad. That one ad ran for a long time. And they do that concept quite often because it hits so well for them. So now I'm like, ooh, it would be so interesting for everyone to try this, where you test an ad where it's like, we're just going to create a character, whoever it is, who literally just doesn't believe us and says so in the ad, and then walks through the process of being converted just by using the products.

[A]

Oh, I've got. I've got ideas for. For my new job that I'm not going to talk about.

[B]

Oh, I can't wait to see this one.

[A]

No. Yeah, I. All right, so take away from the first one was make an ad that makes people think about you.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Later. I think this one is start. Start your hero's journey with someone who doesn't know your brand or is actively skeptical about your brand, and then show the conversion. I love that.

[B]

Yeah. Oh, and this is such an easy ad to make. You could get a UGC creator to create this in, like, two seconds.

[A]

Yeah. Easy.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

All right, round three. I'm over two, by the way.

[B]

You didn't even know this was three rounds. I feel bad, though. We'll give it to you because you didn't know you're having three times. Okay, last round. This is gonna be the dark and dramatic ones. Are you ready?

[A]

This is where I shine.

[B]

Okay, ad number one, Pepsi's drink with the devil. This was a 1989 Halloween campaign featuring a man signing a contract with a fire pen for the ultimate refreshment. Ad number two was DeLorean's Live the Dream. It was a luxury car ad promising the future right before the company collapsed. Oh, my God.

[A]

Lol.

[B]

Okay. And then ad number one was Australia's grim reaper ad. It was a bowling grim reaper who was knocking down humans like pins to symbolize. Symbolize aids, death.

[A]

Whoa. Hold on.

[B]

It got dark really fast.

[A]

Hold on. Say that third one again.

[B]

I apologize. Grim reaper ad. It was a bowling grim reaper who was knocking down humans like bowling pins to symbolize a death.

[A]

Why dark?

[B]

It's part of the dark one. I don't know. This is what chat can be. No, but like, it was symbolizing that, like, they. I think they were trying to reduce AIDS just by educating people about sexual health. And so they just.

[A]

A fear campaign. I'll be honest. That sounds very on the nails for 1980s.

[B]

100. I'm like, that one has to be real just because it's so dark. God, 1980s, okay.

[A]

Yeah. I think 1980s, from the little I know about the AIDS epidemic, this sounds like something some government or health organization would be like, we should put this on tv. They put shit on on tv. When Covid hit, that was like, you're ready to die. And it's like, all right, chill out.

[B]

There's a. This is a segue. But have you seen that ad? That's like, fun ways to die or. No, it's not fun ways. Dumb ways to die. So many dumb ways to die.

[A]

Some insurance company.

[B]

Yes. And that ad has done so well for them, and now it's, like, iconic everywhere. Music people. We'll come back to that. But anyways. Okay.

[A]

All right.

[B]

I digress.

[A]

I'm gonna say Grim Reaper, I think feels real. DeLorean living the dream. Especially with how it relates to the future. I think they're probably playing off the movie. That sounds real. What year did Back the future come out, do you know?

[B]

1980S.

[A]

Yeah, this sounds.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

That sounds like on the nose for that campaign.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Pepsi's drink with the devil sounds like. Sounds like an idea that Pepsi would come up with. Because again, they're the inferior soda, so they're trying. But I. I feel like putting someone selling their soul to the devil on TV in America in the 1980s would have had a bunch of people up in arms about it, probably.

[B]

I'm assuming.

[A]

So I'm gonna say Pepsi's not real good. Yeah.

[B]

Okay, so you at least got one.

[A]

Let's go.

[B]

We'll give it to you. Yes, 1980s did have, like, a lot of very heavy metal energy. So, I mean, it feels like an ad that would be possible, but Pepsi never made an ad that was devil focused, which means there was a grape reaper ad that literally bowled humans over with AIDS, which is scary. And then there was a DeLorean Live the Dream luxury car ad about checks out. These are really interesting because there's weird psychology behind these ones, but. Yeah, go ahead.

[A]

Yeah. So let me ask, does fear mongering have any place in direct to consumer digital advertising?

[B]

I am so on the fence about this, and this is such a good question. I've had way too many people ask me, like, should we get more definitive? Like, should we get more harsh with what we're saying? And my take on it as a marketer is there is nothing that can't be tested in a very strategic way. My take as a human is like, you gotta be so careful, babe. Just be so careful how you trigger people. Because for one thing, today's day and age, especially in the us we don't tolerate any sort of like, what's the word? Stereotyping. We don't tolerate any sort of anything that puts people in a particular box or causes them to feel intense amounts of fear around their own anxieties. Like, the US right now is not in a place where people would tolerate what they did in the 80s very well. So I don't think currently, and I've never, I haven't seen anybody that's been able to run these. I don't, I don't think fear based ads are going to run very well. But that's just my personal opinion.

[A]

Yeah, no, I think you're right. And it is interesting how soft we've gotten and like how much that does, I think, limit advertisers creativity.

[B]

Yeah, it limits us quite a bit because I, I think at the end of the day I wish that there was a way for us to bring forward some of these harsher realities like aids. Right. In a way that would help people really understand what the actual trade off is. Right. Without like making them really intense. But in today's day, I'm not entirely sure you can.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

I do find the DeLorean one really interesting though, if we can pivot, because this one specifically was an ad that talked about it promised the future right before like the company collapsed and like everything was going to shit. They basically took kind of like what the grim reaper ad was saying, which was like, everything's awful, we're all going to die. And flipped it to like, everything's going to be fine because the DeLorean is here. Like, same concept, just opposite way of framing it.

[A]

It's like a lifeboat concept. Okay. Like this is your last ticket out of here.

[B]

Very positive. Yep, yep. So they switch into a different valence zone. For anybody who's. Sarah talk way too much about valences. But. And this is the reason why I talk about it so much because you can have two ads that are basically saying like very similar things. The world is ending up.

[A]

A completely different vibe.

[B]

Completely different vibe and very different responses to that. And obviously one is a luxury car and one is like, talk about aids.

[A]

But in general it's a little easier. You don't have to talk about AIDS in your commercial.

[B]

Little bit different, product is different. But you know, overall, how you say something matters more than what you say. So, yeah, this was fun.

[A]

This is a good episode.

[B]

I like this one just because I like the history of things, but I'm also like, these are fun because some of the ads that Jack came up with sound very real. Like the Sony Walkman ad. I want to see that ad like.

[A]

All right, thanks so much for listening to Brain Driven brands. Shout out. Other side, Shout out. Tether, our sponsors and we'll see you guys next time.

[B]

Peace. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today. Appreciate you guys listening. If you want to follow me, I'm Sarah Levenger. Anywhere you consume content, he is aytelegos. If you like this show and if you like this episode, go ahead and like, subscribe. Share with a friend. Drop us a review when you have a minute. We would appreciate it. Otherwise, have a great week. We'll see you next time.