👋, I’m Kimberly. I’ve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, I’m giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
My current Netflix show is called Ragnarok.
It’s a dramatic fantasy that follows the stories of Norse mythology getting recreated in the present day—specifically:
The Giants who have been secretly living on Earth for the past 3,000 years, causing destruction to the world
The Gods who are now getting reincarnated or activated (it’s not clear yet) in order to battle the Giants and save the world
In one episode, the Giants get into a big argument about what to do about the kid who is obviously some incarnation of the god Thor.
The teenage girl Giant wants to immediately murder Thor.
Her dad Giant disagrees, and she calls him out for not taking bold action and becoming too complacent living as a human all these years.
We hail from an ancient, immortal clan of warriors. We were worshipped.
The humans sacrificed to us. We were the first gods.And now, you drive a Volvo. You love watching American TV shows while you lie on the couch eating candy.
And a few scenes later, we see the dad Giant—popping candies and kicking back.
This got me thinking about how it’s all too easy for Giants—and for brands—to sit back and become comfortably complacent.
In this scenario, a brand’s version of candy and American TV is pretty pictures and content that’s all fluff.
So today—here are a few inspiring examples of brands who made like Thor and brought the hammer, taking bold actions related to their purposes.
The Brand That Made a Crap Product,
Just to Make a Point
On Earth Day this year, the New Belgium Brewing Company created a very special spinoff version of its popular Fat Tire brand.
Meet… Torched Earth.
To create the Torched Earth brew, they used what they described as "some of the less-than-ideal ingredients that would be available and affordable to brewers in a climate-ravaged future without aggressive action now to confront the climate crisis.”
Smoked Malt… to mimic the impact wildfires will have on water supply
Millet + Buckwheat… two drought-resistant grains, since we’ll be lacking water
Dandelions… instead of hops, because we’re going to need to use the lowest cost alternatives to hops we can find
In terms of flavor, the brewery called the beverage "a dark starchy liquid with smokey aromatics [that] is not likely to win any awards, but does highlight the stakes of climate change for beer lovers everywhere."
Torched Earth immediately sold out. But sales of this beer were clearly not the point.
By letting consumers literally taste the effects of climate change, Torched Earth highlighted the issue AND challenged customers to think about it in a new way.
The message also made sense for the brand. Climate change is an issue that’s always been important to New Belgium. Last year, their Fat Tire brew became America’s first certified carbon neutral beer.
New Belgium has also promised to achieve net-zero emissions across the entire company by 2030. As part of the campaign around Torched Earth, New Belgium asked beer drinkers to demand the same promise from other beer companies—paying the environmental goodness forward.
We can all drink to that.
Just don’t make it a Torched Earth… that sounds terrible.
The Brand That Kicked a Chicken While He Was Down
Have you heard about the chicken shortages lately? In 2021, there was a trifecta of problems leading to less poultry and higher prices.
Pandemic safety measures, slowing down factories
Surging demand—with fast food chains warring over the best chicken sandwich, and customers getting in on the action
Underperforming roosters (ouch!) that aren’t producing as many chicks as expected… I’d hate to see those 360 reviews
It’s gotten so bad that Popeyes has been stockpiling chicken—2020 toilet-paper style.
Luckily, plant-based Alpha Foods jumped in to help save the “Flock Market” from “Chickenflation”—slashing prices on its faux chicken products to fill the void.
Alpha Foods went super big to make its VERY punny announcement… with this full page ad in the Wall Street Journal that directly called out those underperforming roosters.
And this billboard in Times Square.
They even sent street teams to stand right outside of Popeyes and pass out coupons for an extra 30% off Apha’s meat-free chicken nuggets.
Now that’s what I call going after Big Poultry and the fast food industry with all wings (and legs and thighs) on deck…
The timing was just im-peck-able!
They weren’t yolking around!
I bet it got stuck in Popeye’s gizzard!
Ok, I’ll stop.
The Brand That Made Everyone Flip Over Tags
In September 2020, customers who had purchased certain products from Patagonia found some pretty surprising statements on the flip side of their labels.
Instead of the usual directions for how to wash, dry, and press their garments—the labels read “Vote the Assholes Out.”
Twitter began storming, as it does, with people abuzz about the hidden messages.
“@patagonia, can you please confirm if this is accurate,” wrote political commentator Ana Navarro-Cárdenas. “Cuz I’m about to go online and buy parkas in every color....and I live in Miami.”
Patagonia has always been a brand known for taking big stands—endorsing political candidates and even suing the Trump administration.
So these profane easter eggs, while certainly surprising, were 100% in keeping with the bold spirit of the brand.
And according to staff, the words themselves are a quote from Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard—he’s been saying “Vote the assholes out” around the office for years.
“It refers to politicians from any party who deny or disregard the climate crisis and ignore science, not because they aren’t aware of it, but because their pockets are lined with money from oil and gas interests.”
— Tessa Byars, a Patagonia spokesperson.
The back-of tag stunt was a winner because it was perfectly on brand for Patagonia, it wasn’t afraid to offend, and it got a lot of people talking.
As a bonus, the clothes with the special tags became instant collectors’ items—they’re already selling for $$$ on eBay.
That’s one (extreme) way to make sure these clothes won’t end up in a landfill.
In Conclusion: Get Off the Couch
If your brand has been popping a lot of candy lately, how can you take a bold action…
That ties back to your brand’s purpose?
That calls out your brand’s competition?
That isn’t afraid of turning off someone who isn’t your brand’s target customer?
Brainstorm a bit—and get back to me if you come up with something good. I’d love to hear about it.
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About Me
I help early stage founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, they’ll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprint—a uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, or schedule a call with me.