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 eight tactics from the Creative Tactics Engine for turning what something is called into what the campaign actually says.
- Reclaimed Names
- Name as Reward
- Rename to Reframe
- 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.
2. Name as Reward
Find the people whose name gives them an accidental connection to your brand — and give them something for it.
We Are Parrilla — Burger King, David, Argentina, 2017
In Argentina, "Parrilla" means grill — and Argentinians with that surname had been mocked for it their entire lives. Burger King identified them, acknowledged the connection, and rewarded them with free burgers for life. The name that had been a source of teasing became the qualification for a lifetime of reward. Nothing about the surname changed. The brand changed what it meant to have it.
Oreo & Friends, Oreo / Saatchi & Saatchi, discovered that "Oreo" was one of the most common pet names in the US and used that insight to build a shelter adoption platform — the brand name became a matchmaking device between owner and animal. Rebound Dogs, Pedigree / BBDO, matched single people with shelter dogs whose names and personalities were the opposite of their exes, turning naming logic into an adoption mechanic with the structure of a dating app spoof.
3. Rename to Reframe
Give something a new name that changes how people see, find or behave towards it.
The Vegetable Name Change — Delhaize, TBWA Brussels, Belgium, 2018
Most children already knew what carrots, tomatoes and mushrooms were. That was part of the problem: the familiar names carried familiar resistance. Delhaize worked with schoolchildren to rename 12 fruits and vegetables, turning tomatoes into “clown noses”, carrots into “orange rockets” and oyster mushrooms into “gnome trumpets”. The new identities appeared on packaging, shelf signs and receipts, transforming the produce aisle into an imaginative world. According to the agency, sales rose 151%, with more than two million “magic vegetables” sold in two weeks
The Black Dog(s), SecondeChance.org / BETC Paris, 2024, renamed 843 overlooked black shelter dogs “Taylor Swift”, intercepting searches around the singer’s song The Black Dog and redirecting Swiftie attention towards adoption. The dogs themselves didn’t change. Their new name changed who noticed them, turning celebrity search behaviour into an adoption channel.
