The brand that takes a phrase, a claim, or an assumption at complete face value — and actually follows through — creates a different kind of attention. Adland runs on figurative language. Deadpan literalism hits harder than wit when the gap between what's usually meant and what's actually shown is wide enough.
Here are four wordplay tactics from the Creative Tactics Engine that take the brief at its word.
- Literalise the Slur
- Literalise the Brand Promise
- Literalise the Wrong Answer
- Literalise the Phrase or Consequence
1. Literalise the Slur
Take the insult at face value — and make it something worth celebrating.
This Coke is a Fanta — Coca-Cola, Ogilvy, 2018
The brief: respond to a homophobic slur embedded in Brazilian popular culture — "That Coke is a Fanta," used as a dig implying someone is gay. Ogilvy made it literal. Coca-Cola released limited-edition cans that looked exactly like Coke on the outside but were filled with Fanta inside. The tagline — "And what if it is?" — took the insult's logic and followed it to its obvious conclusion: so what? The execution turned a slur into a product, a product into a pride statement, and a pride statement into a national conversation.
Literalisation works because it removes the insult's power at source. The moment the brand takes the word seriously and runs with it, the original hostility has nowhere to land. The attacker hands you the creative brief.
