The Bald and the Bold: How “Bugonia” Botched a Brilliant Marketing Moment
Let’s get this out of the way first, the Bugonia stunt could’ve been legendary. The kind of PR moment that earns front-page headlines, floods TikTok feeds, and gets whispered about in marketing Slack channels for years.
But instead of legendary, it became lukewarm.
Controversy Usually Ends With Revenue.
Your brand doesn’t need safe. Safe is boring. Safe is invisible. Safe is the default path to irrelevance.
When your instinct is to issue a press release, apologize, retreat, “clarify the intent,” and tone everything down, that’s the moment your brand is getting eaten alive. What you really need is conviction, nerve, and a willingness to absorb backlash that isn’t aimed at your customers.
Ryan Reynolds Is To Advertising What Shien Is To High Fashion.
Let’s talk about Ryan Reynolds.
Actor? Yes. Charming? Sure. Canadian? Absolutely. But marketing genius? Pump the brakes, ADWEEK .
Once again, the advertising world is tripping over itself to praise the man like he’s the second coming of David Ogilvy, all because of a shiny little PR diversion masquerading as a brand campaign. If you missed it, Ryan Reynolds' agency (Maximum Effort — ironic name for what amounts to TikTok-level commitment) recently dropped an ad for a tech company featuring Coldplay’s “X&Y” era emotions and, get this, the Coldplay singer's ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow is in the creative. That’s right, they used a connected celebrity as a smokescreen to rewrite the headlines and change the public narrative on the CEO cheating scandal.
And everyone’s clapping like trained seals at SeaWorld.
Modernizing a 20-Year-Old Brand: What We’ve Learned, What Comes Next, and Why Playing It Safe Is the Worst Idea You Can Have
I’m real close to taking on a new project, a brand that’s been around for 20 years, and I’m speaking about it like it’s already in the bag because, frankly, it’s just a matter of time. (I’m a big believer in speaking things into existence.)
Modernizing a brand that’s been operating for two decades is no small task.
SuperBowl Ads Are Stupid.
SuperBowl ads are the ultimate brand and agency vanity play, and we need to talk about it. Yeah, I said it. And before anyone gets all riled up about the “cultural moment” or “brand exposure,” let’s break down the reality here.
Brands are forking over $7 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Factor in production costs, celebrity talent fees, and the hype machine that kicks into gear weeks before kickoff, and we’re looking at a $15-20 million spend. For one ad. One.