Every name is already working — as a weapon, a disguise, a punchline, or proof. Brands that see this don't reach for a naming device as a finishing touch. They build the campaign from the name outward, because the name is already carrying meaning the audience brought with them.
Here are seven tactics from the Creative Tactics Engine for turning what something is called into what the campaign actually says.
- Reclaimed Names
- Name as Reward
- Hidden Stars & Famous Doubles
- Name Hijack: Identity Transfer
- Name-Based National Pride
- Geo-Naming & Territorial Hijacks
- Name Hijacks & Verbal Ambushes
1. Reclaimed Names
Find the name people are ashamed of — and make it the thing they're proudest to carry.
#DefyTheName — Monica Lewinsky, BBDO, 2018
Monica Lewinsky's name had spent two decades as a shorthand for public humiliation. BBDO's brief was to do something with that — not bury it, not apologise for it, but use it. The campaign invited people to share the names and labels they'd been taunted with online, with Lewinsky's own history as the emotional anchor. The mechanism was participatory: by naming what they'd been called, people removed the caller's ownership of it. What started as one person's very specific and very public shame became a platform for anyone who'd ever been reduced to a label they didn't choose.
Runner 321, adidas / FCB Toronto, reserved race bib number 321 — a reference to Trisomy 21 — for neurodivergent runner Chris Nikic, turning a numeric marker into a badge. We Are Parrilla, Burger King / David, rewarded Argentinians with the surname "Grill" — long mocked — with free burgers for life.
