The art of mocking self: How brands are using 'anti-advertising' to get noticed

Being able to laugh at ourselves is a tricky trait to nurture, but it can help people connect with us more – and it’s the same for brands and consumers.

Remember the cricketer Rahul Dravid's angry avatar in the  advertisement of CRED, a Bengaluru-based credit card bill payment platform, released early this year? 

The video campaign features actor Jim Sarbh stating "When you pay your Credit Cards bills on CRED, you earn CRED coins. Use them to claim cashback and rewards. I know this sounds ridiculous. It is like saying Rahul Dravid has anger issues." 

Later, Dravid appears in the ad infuriated and stuck in Bengaluru's infamous traffic jam. He was shouting from his car, breaking the side-mirror of a car standing next to him with his bat before getting out of the car's rooftop and announced "Indiranagar ka gunda hoon main."

Netizens loved the spoof and shared hilarious memes demanding that Dravid now qualifies to star in an angry young man role in Kabir Singh movie remake.

By mocking itself, CRED managed to draw massive attention on social media. The ad has got more than 6 million views on youtube. 

In 2019, Doritos chips had removed its name and logo from the wafer packets to appeal to Gen Z in ‘Another Level’ campaign.

Domino's, one the leading Pizza brands now, was running at a massive loss a decade ago. It launched a number of ads that showed Domino’s customers criticizing the old recipes, and staff members admitting that there needed to be a big change. Consumers loved the honesty in the ads. 

Over the past few years, there's been an upward trend of brands who switch to “anti-advertising” to mock themselves with an aim to woo the millennial cohorts by “humanizing” their brand experience.

How did it all start? 

German car maker Volkswagen’s 1959 ad in the United States of America is considered by the advertising world as one of the greatest ads of all time. 

The campaign for a small, cheap and compact Beetle model was prepared by Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB, now owned by the world’s one of the largest companies-Omicron). 

It was the time when Americans were in love with stylish vehicles made in the USA. 

The ad, filled mostly with white space, had the VW model in small size at the upper left corner, with a caption “Think Small.” along with a full stop. The body text listed the plus points of the car. The simplicity and minimalism had a great appeal. 

“It was the time when cars were fashion statements, testosterone boosters, muscles on wheels. They were built to be fast, big, stylish and the ultimate way to earn bragging points. It’s a classic straw man situation. The VW set up this ideal car and told you why the VW wasn’t anything like it, then they bashed in the straw man by telling you how this was a good thing. The VW isn’t fast, so it doesn’t guzzle gas, burn through tires or need frequent repairs. Wait, that sounds pretty nice actually,” describes Dr Radhika Wadhera of Rajiv Gandhi College of Management Studies and Nishu Chawla of Graphic Era Hill University in their case study case study.

The ad sought to portray that Beetle is not an ugly foreign car in a sea of American beauties but as a uniquely attractive design statement oozing with personality.

Mocumentaries a rage now

Since 1959, scores of Indian and foreign brands have tried spoofing or self-depreciating ads to make inroads among potential customers.  

They ask consumers not to buy the product, they skip the brand name altogether or poke fun at the concept of advertising itself. 

The idea is to use reverse psychology with consumers. If an ad tells you not to buy a product, people tend to buy even more. If an ad makes mockery of the brand, people would appreciate the brand more, ad experts say. 

It is not anti-advertising, it's just an unconventional way to promote the products, says Titus Upputuru, Creative Head, Taproot Dentsu, Gurgaon and National Creative Director, Dentsu One. 

“I think it’s cool for brands to take themselves not so seriously all the time. And poke fun at themselves now and then. If it’s good to have a sense of humour for people, why shouldn’t brands have a laugh too,” Upputuru says. 

He recalls doing a “mockumentary” to promote Honda Jazz, “We came up with this idea called ‘Beepsodes’. They were a series of episodes, where the protagonists abuse each other like friends normally do with F words. Now instead of beeping out the abuses, we just created a beep language. So, the friends would say ‘beep off, beep you’ and so on and so forth.. In the first beepsode, when one of the friends played by Rohan Joshi asks, ‘Why are we beeping at each other?’. His friend Tahir Bhasin replies, ‘It’s because we will eventually get beeped out anyway’.”

He adds, “In the 4th beepsode, we featured Mallika Dua, who is known to create a lot of content in this genre. It was a runway hit. Writing for the 6 ‘Beepsodes’ was great fun and the branded content earned immense traction for the brand.”

Sandeep Menghi, Creator In Chief - Content Factory, prefers to call anti-advertising an Art. 

He says, “Imagine being the smallest one in a huge pond full of a variety of fishes, all bigger, stronger or dominant than yourself and you still manage to survive. I call it art and not self-mocking. It’s an art of focusing on our strengths and ignoring what others can or cannot do. And once you have identified that strength that can set you apart from the rest, you will become an inspiration for others and a reason for resonance. That's probably one of the reasons why I believe the ‘Think small’ campaign is inspiring even today.”

Brands must focus on their unique ability that can resonate with their target group rather than trying to imitate, mock or chase what a bigger fish in the pond is doing, Menghi states.