Explaining a complex idea is hard. Making a boring one interesting can be even harder. The smartest campaigns do not labour the explanation. They find a metaphor so precise that the audience makes the connection for themselves and sees the subject differently. Here are five tactics from the Metaphor Engine for changing how people think about your brand, your product or the world around it.
- Simplify the Complex
- Reframe Value or Consumption
- Create Emotional or Cultural Connection
- Embody the Product Benefit
- Let Language Do the Work
1. Simplify the Complex
Find an everyday object or experience that carries the same logic as your idea — and let it do the explaining.
Flower of Life — Hermes Pardini, Ogilvy, 2018
Getting Amazonian women in Brazil to attend annual pap tests was a healthcare challenge that statistics and public health messaging hadn't solved. Ogilvy's answer: gift them a specially bred orchid that blooms once a year. No explanation needed. The flower blooms — you go. The plant's annual rhythm became the annual reminder for the health check. The metaphor was the mechanic.
Telekom's The Online Park (Leo Burnett, 2021) built a physical park installation in Romania to teach parents about online safety — translating the invisible risks of the internet into the familiar dangers of a playground. Abstract threat became something you could walk around.
2. Reframe Value or Consumption
Change what the behaviour means — and you change whether people want to do it.
1352: Refreshed Sneakers — Hellmann's, ID. Eight, 2024
The average Canadian household wastes $1,352 of food annually — a statistic that reliably bounces off people. Hellmann's turned the number into an object: sneakers made from discarded food materials, costing exactly $1,352. Abstract waste became a pair of trainers you could hold. The statistic became a fashion statement. It earned strong media coverage and triggered charitable donations in the process.
Patagonia Beer's Billion Star Hotel (Beta Collective, 2022) reframed outdoor camping under the stars as a five-star hotel experience — flipping the conventional luxury hierarchy on its head, making "roughing it" feel aspirational. IKEA's #BuyBackFriday (Edelman London, 2021) reframed resale as the anti-Black Friday — turning what felt like a commercial sacrifice into a moral act of conviction.
3. Create Emotional or Cultural Connection
Use a product action as a stand-in for a human truth — and the brand earns an entirely different kind of relevance.
Assemble Together — IKEA, Rethink, 2021
IKEA needed seasonal relevance in Canada without defaulting to a generic Christmas campaign. Rethink found the metaphor in the product itself: assembling IKEA furniture as a metaphor for generations coming together during the holidays. A film celebrated a South Asian-Canadian family's customs around food, lights, and togetherness — with the dual meaning of assembly running quietly underneath. The product relevance was there without ever being announced. Broad emotional resonance followed.
Copenhagen Pride's ProudPitch (Worth Your While, 2022) hijacked UEFA coverage with Instagram filters that turned football pitches into LGBTQ+ pride flags — using sport's most recognisable surface as an identity symbol. The Rak'n'Roll Foundation's Warsaw Mermaid Took Day Off (PHD, 2022) temporarily removed the city's most iconic statue and replaced it with a plinth reading: "The Mermaid took a day off. Go do the same — get checked." Zero paid media. National conversation.
