Awkwardness works best when the discomfort is part of the brand truth. A toilet paper brand talks about the first office poo because bathroom embarrassment is a tension that belongs to the category. A lip balm brand reunites people for a second first kiss because vulnerability makes the product feel emotionally charged. An Uber ride becomes the graceful exit because some social situations are only bearable once you know you can leave. That’s the trick: don’t use awkwardness as random cringe. Use it where the pause, the wince or the social panic reveals exactly why the brand matters. Here are six tactics from the Emotion Engine that make awkwardness the whole point.
- Use Awkwardness as a Product Metaphor
- Own the Brand's Own Awkward Position
- Make Awkward Conversations Easier
- Awkward Moments as Cultural Mirror
- Use Awkwardness to Build Emotional Intimacy
- Awkwardness as the Exit Mechanic
1. Use Awkwardness as a Product Metaphor
Find the uncomfortable human behaviour that maps directly onto your product truth — and let the social cringe do the product demo.
People Can't Stop Themselves — Volkswagen, Ogilvy Cape Town, 2018
Volkswagen needed to make Brake Assist feel human rather than technical. The radio-led campaign found a comic proxy in people who simply cannot stop themselves — someone saying far too much at a funeral, a stalker who doesn't know when to quit, a PC repair situation that escalates past every social boundary — each ending with the line that some people just can't stop themselves; thankfully, the Golf 7 can. The social discomfort of watching someone overstep became an instantly legible analogy for a car failing to brake in time.
Affirm's Swimming Briefs (Venables Bell & Partners, 2022) used a young couple's deeply uncomfortable encounter with an eccentric neighbour in a tiny speedo to make the point that adult life throws unexpected purchases at you without warning — and financial flexibility helps. The Gym Group (DEPT, 2022) dramatised the physical comedy of clumsy home workouts to make a single proposition land cleanly: there's a Gym Group round the corner. In each case, the awkward situation isn't decoration — it's the argument.
2. Own the Brand's Own Awkward Position
When your brand finds itself in a genuinely uncomfortable spot, lean into the discomfort rather than smooth it over — and make self-awareness the creative territory.
BOTHLANDS — Snickers, Octagon, 2021
Snickers found itself sponsoring both England and Scotland ahead of UEFA EURO 2020 — two nations whose football rivalry is among the most emotionally charged in the game. Rather than produce separate neutral content for each audience or pretend the contradiction didn't exist, the brand leaned directly into it. Stars from both national teams appeared together in front of heavily branded sponsor backdrops, parodying the conventions of tournament sponsorship films.
Greene King's Ice Breaker pale ale (Engine Creative, 2022) faced a different version of the same challenge: a product name that implied social superpowers the beer didn't actually possess. Rather than oversell the promise, the campaign showed people misreading the name as a licence to be bolder in uncomfortable social situations — only to discover the beer simply tasted good. The honesty made the brand more memorable than any confidence claim could have. When the awkward position is real, the most powerful creative move is to say so first.
3. Make Awkward Conversations Easier
Find the subject your audience needs to talk about but can't quite bring themselves to — and make your brand the one that breaks the silence.
Get Comfortable — Andrex, FCB London, 2024
Half of Brits admit that embarrassment about their bodily functions stops them using work toilets or going to the bathroom at a partner's house. Forty-one percent are afraid to go at their in-laws'. Andrex and FCB London built an entire brand platform around that collective social constipation. The launch film, First Office Poo, opens with a woman who accidentally farts in front of her colleagues. A brief, mortifying pause follows — then the Andrex puppy gives her an encouraging nod from under the desk. She picks up a roll, walks through the open-plan office with it in hand and enters the toilet with total confidence. No voiceover. No packaging close-ups. No gleaming white bathrooms. Just OOH headlines like 'Live Unclenched' and 'Conquer the First Office Poo', and a platform built to spark a conversation British culture had been actively avoiding.
Sprite's They Need Guidance (GUT, 2021) reversed the usual direction of the awkward conversation — showing young people gently correcting their parents on outdated language and behaviour, with enough lightness to make potentially charged intergenerational moments feel constructive rather than confrontational.
