People avoid the number 13. They blow on dice before rolling them. They insist a footballer called Zé is the difference between glory and heartbreak. None of that is rational. None of it is going away. The brands in this article didn't argue with it — they rolled with it. Here are six tactics from the Emotion Engine that let irrational thinking do the rational work.
- Turn a Conspiracy Theory Into a Brand Platform
- Embrace a Superstition That Already Belongs to Your Product
- Manufacture a Superstition to Drive a Behaviour
- Unearth a Folklore Belief and Make It Your Proposition
- Make the Audience the Ritual Keepers
- Weaponise Bad Luck Against Your Rivals
1. Turn a Conspiracy Theory Into a Brand Platform
Find a pattern too convenient to be coincidence — then make your brand the one who blew the lid off it.
Football Is Food — Uber Eats, 2024
Uber Eats had data showing orders spiked when its ads ran alongside food brand commercials — proof that football makes people hungry. The answer was to take that insight to its most paranoid conclusion: what if football was always a conspiracy to sell food? What if the goalposts were two french fries? What if Julius Peppers, CJ Ham and Jerry Rice weren't a coincidence? Matthew McConaughey played conspiracist-in-chief across an entire NFL season, culminating at Super Bowl LIX — a game named after a bowl, at a stadium named after a salad. The campaign earned $225 million in ad value and drove a 3x quarter-on-quarter increase in app sessions.
Zé Delivery (GUT, 2022) found a different conspiracy in Brazilian football statistics: every time Brazil had won the World Cup, there was a player named Zé on the squad. With none on the 2022 roster, the brand launched a national movement asking Vinícius Jr. — full name Vinícius José — to put Zé on his jersey and restore the nation's cosmic luck.
2. Embrace a Superstition That Already Belongs to Your Product
Find the pre-existing folk belief attached to your category — and lean into it rather than away from it.
Unlucky Sponsor — Cris-Sal, Paradais DDB, 2022
Cris-Sal was rejected as a sponsor of Ecuador's national football team because salt is considered bad luck in South American culture. Rather than find another platform, the brand accepted the premise entirely — and sponsored Ecuador's opponents instead. Billboards inside and outside stadiums wished opposing teams good luck, complete with a Cris-Sal shaker dusting salt over the message. Ecuador reached Qatar 2022. Their opponents were plagued by injuries and red cards. The campaign generated 41 million impressions for a brand most of the world had never heard of. See campaign ->
Expedition Iceland (Icelandair, Kubbco, 2024) inherited a different accusation. AI-generated imagery had made Iceland a running joke in sceptical corners of the internet — it was too 'perfect'. Rather than rebut it, Icelandair sent a conspiracy bro and his increasingly exasperated companion to investigate on camera. The mockumentary works through the evidence methodically and the format mirrors the exact content culture that produces this kind of doubt — which means the film travels inside the same feeds carrying the conspiracy. By the end, the bro still can't quite say it out loud. The accusation just runs out of road. Over 36 million views and a 51% interaction rate.
3. Manufacture a Superstition to Drive a Behaviour
Invent a superstition from scratch — seed it into culture before your brand appears — and watch it travel on its own.
The Rail Ritual — KiwiRail, DDB, 2023
With train incidents rising and safety messaging worn thin, DDB created a brand-new superstition — a ritual of blowing left and right when crossing train tracks — and seeded it across forums, blogs, Wikipedia and influencer content months before KiwiRail made any official move. Once established, KiwiRail endorsed it during Rail Safety Week as both good luck and good practice. Government officials demonstrated it on national television. Campaign impressions increased 157%. Overall public incidents decreased 50% in the months following launch.
