For twenty years now, the Pantone Institute has been identifying the color that will set trends for the coming year. In 2020, the dominant shade was supposed to be Classic Blue, which "encourages thinking outside the box." And although the past year was far from colorful in many respects, it is still worth applying a marketing color palette to that period and summarizing 2020 from this perspective.
The dominant colors of last year certainly included: Eco Green with numerous pro-environmental initiatives; Proud Rainbow, through which many important issues concerning LGBT+ communities were addressed; and Feminine Pink with a range of activations tackling gender discrimination. Campaigns of this type, though extremely important, did not attract much of my interest, because for years they have occupied a place in the foreground of the marketing landscape. The year 2020 therefore caught my attention with completely different shades. I am talking about Moldy Green, Rotting White, and Month-Past-Expiry-Date Bronze – the colors of decay adorning the Whopper from Burger King. The colors of anti-advertising realism, which sporadically but extremely boldly adorned the picturesque marketing landscape last year.
What exactly is anti-advertising?
How should the term "anti-advertising" be understood in the first place? There have been many attempts to describe and systematize this term. Most often, reversed psychology, honesty, and breaking the fourth wall are mentioned as hallmarks of anti-advertising. In addition, attention is paid to self-referentiality, humor, and the absence of overt product placement or even the brand's logo itself. It is also emphasized that anti-advertising constitutes a complete "opposite and negation of standard advertising." One of the precursors of the described form of marketing is usually said to be Volkswagen and its 1959 campaign with the slogans "Think small" or "Lemon," promoting the Beetle. D dictionary-style containment of anti-advertising, given so many different markers, becomes a difficult and complicated task. I do not want to impose here some exceptionally narrow framework in which I would try to capture the term under analysis, which after all evolves and expands its meaning with every new creation. In my view, anti-advertising can be described in the broadly understood categories of negation of standard advertising, in which the promoted product (or service) is always spoken of favorably and its attributes are emphasized along with the exposure of the brand logo. Anti-advertising is none of that. But what was it like in 2020, and why does it have a chance to become a permanent fixture in the creations of the coming years?
Burger King and the beauty of mold
In February, Burger King prepared a controversial action, "The Moldy Whopper," presenting its flagship product in a rather unusual form. As part of the activation, a 34-day timelapse of a moldy sandwich was shown, which visually had nothing to do with appetizing appeal. Nevertheless, the burger's "imperfections" were only seemingly its flaws. The final message ("The beauty of no artificial preservatives") perfectly capped the whole story, attempting to turn the initially negative tone ultimately to its own advantage. The phenomenon of anti-advertising was expressed here by showing a completely unappetizing product that, instead of deliciously stimulating the senses, repelled and pushed away. And yet the campaign drew users' attention and sparked broad discussion on social media.
The brand's action can therefore be considered in terms of anti-advertising, which, unlike standard marketing practices, does not present an idealized world or product. On the contrary – it exposes defects, but only in order to make a communication volte-face and turn flaws into advantages. And although anti-advertising is not an innovative means of expression, I have the impression that in the near future we may witness the continuation of this trend. Especially since the response and sentiment of Burger King fans were overwhelmingly positive.
The trend was also used by the Polish branch of Burger King, which in November published a message on its fanpage encouraging people to order food from other restaurants as well. In this way, the brand tried to support the entire industry in the face of pandemic restrictions. And although the brands mentioned in the message could indeed benefit from such an action, the greatest benefits ultimately go to Burger King, which builds its image on empathy.
However, among anti-advertising efforts, fully intentional ones are less common. More often, completely accidental and spontaneous ones dominate – not resulting from a conscious process. Such a situation is always a considerable challenge for a brand, whose reaction will affect its image and perception.
Anti-advertising, Polish style: Apart and the Golec brothers
One of the "victims" of spontaneous anti-advertising was the already famous Apart commercial, whose overly sweet and artificially created world was parodied by Klub Komediowy. The brand's reaction was to publish a short message in a comment under the video: "You made our day with this. :D We already know who will be making our next commercial! (...)" In this way, Apart performed the so-called "embrace the meme," fully accepting the role assigned to it. This move is the simplest, but it seems still effective, method of making a communication turn and turning criticism into positive connotations with the brand. To show contrast, it is worth mentioning the completely opposite reaction of the Golec brothers. In 2017, the musicians reprimanded internet users who had remixed one of the band's songs. The artists called on them to remove the copyright-infringing work, which of course met with an even greater wave of meme remixes defaming the Golc brothers. Apart's response was therefore the right reaction, thanks to which the brand effectively avoided a potential Streisand effect, while eliminating the negative anti-advertising tone.
From mistake to content: mBank and KaMos
Anti-advertising and 2020 marketing trends: case analysis
We encountered a similar response to unintentional anti-advertising during an outage at mBank. A push notification sent to customers containing "ęśąćż" triggered waves of concern, irritation, amusement, and – as in the case of Apart – creativity among users. Despite the error, the brand also to some extent came out with its dignity intact, changing its profile picture to the logo updated by Fakes Forge with the unfortunate Polish diacritic letters. For a short time, the error also became a springboard for further communication and content creation – mBank used "ęśąćż" as a password to receive a discount code for travel and car insurance.
The situation was similar with the company KaMos. A little-known dairy cooperative from Kamienna Góra became popular thanks to a badly prepared calendar for the new year. Nevertheless, the concept won over users with its simplicity, who massively liked (4.9 thousand reactions), commented on (1.9 thousand), and shared (1.8 thousand) the project, naturally building the brand's reach. Thanks to this, KaMos had its five minutes, wisely embracing the moment by taking control of its own memetic status.
It can therefore be safely assumed that anti-advertising does not really exist and is "anti-" in name only. In the end, it carries with it many potential opportunities that a brand can gain if it only properly uses the given circumstances. Thanks to practically free publicity, a brand can more than improve its image, gain the favor of new fans effectively increasing organic reach, and use its own missteps to create content in the form of individual creations, and in the future perhaps even extensive campaigns. The potential of the trend is also evidenced by the behavior of other brands. Their real-time marketing reactions demonstrate to some extent a certain feeling of envy toward companies currently being talked about because of the spontaneous buzz around them. In addition, anti-advertising ventures (similar, for example, to what Klub Komediowy undertook) are slowly becoming a benchmark which – admittedly still timidly – is increasingly beginning to appear in briefs as a potential direction for guerrilla marketing actions.
Analyzing anti-advertising in a somewhat broader context, it is worth invoking the aspect related to the pandemic. Along with the change in our everyday habits, the marketing landscape also changed. Many brands moved away from communicating a sugar-coated reality in favor of a less perfect, sometimes deliberately flawed image of realism, which allowed for a more effective – because more down-to-earth and based on closeness – way of reaching audiences. The T-Mobile brand used scenes recorded with phones in apartments for its spot to talk about extra gigabytes of internet, which would be especially useful when everyone stayed at home. In a similar style, Tyskie switched to the informal "you" despite unexpected barriers. Bolt, meanwhile, improved its vehicles by introducing the Protect ride category to the market. These are just a few of truly many examples that clearly show tendencies in brand communication in response to COVID restrictions. The turn toward realistic creations and useful services making life easier during quarantine was oriented toward the current needs of audiences. This is also where one can look for the reasons behind the admiration for anti-advertising productions that did not distort the reality in which society found itself. However, Apart broke away from this pattern by completely ignoring coronavirus realities, trying to artificially promote glamour that did not fit the existing reality.
The Moldy Green of anti-advertising was certainly not the dominant color in the marketing year 2020. Nevertheless, its shade should paradoxically whet brands' appetites for more unconventional, contrarian actions, which can only add color to next year's campaigns.
Author: Maciej Bojda
Senior Creative at 19 Południk, connected with the advertising industry for nearly ten years, a psychofan of correct punctuation, a lover of wordplay and creative concepts, which he has co-created for, among others, mBank, PZU, Lech Premium, Dan Cake, and Tauron.
Summary
The year 2020 in marketing passed under the sign of anti-advertising – from deliberate actions, such as Burger King's spot showing a moldy Whopper, to spontaneous brand mishaps. Apart skillfully turned the parody of its commercial into a positive tone, while the Golec brothers, defending copyright, triggered an avalanche of memes. The mBank outage gave rise to the slogan "ęśąćż," which became part of its communication, and the KaMos cooperative gained popularity thanks to a disastrous calendar. The pandemic strengthened the trend of moving away from an idealized world toward realism and closeness. Anti-advertising, paradoxically, brings brands tangible image benefits.
