Sometimes the most potent brief isn't written by the client. It's written by the troll, the regulator, the competitor — handed over freely, loaded with energy, and aimed directly at you. Turn the Tables is the tactic that takes that material and redirects it: same force, opposite direction, in full public view. Here are seven creative tactics that turn the opponent's move into your campaign.
- Redirect the attack
- Corrupt the platform they rely on
- Make their fine print the ad
- Use their own ideology against them
- Respond in public with evidence
- Build the trap, catch the predator
- Flip who the monster is
1. Redirect the Attack
Take what they aimed at you — and point it back at them, in public, at scale.
Mirrors of Racism — NGO Criola, W3haus, 2015
When journalist Maria Julia Coutinho became Brazil's first Black prime-time weather broadcaster, a torrent of racist abuse flooded social media. NGO Criola collected the most vivid comments and plastered them in huge letters on billboards in five Brazilian cities — in the exact neighbourhoods where the people who posted them lived. Each billboard carried the line "Virtual racism, real consequences." W3haus then filmed passersby reacting, and posted the videos online. In one, the author of a racist post stood in front of a billboard bearing his own words and apologised to a Black woman on camera.
XP Investimentos (Grey, 2019) took the same logic to personal finance: their female investment advisor Ana Laura received sexist comments every time she posted. On International Women's Day, she replied to every one — with the exact returns they'd missed out on by ignoring her advice.
2.Corrupt the Platform They Rely On
Get inside the system the opposition uses — and make it work against them.
Harmless Guns — Dagoma, TBWA\Paris, 2018
When 3D-printed gun blueprints were released online and downloaded over 20,000 times, Dagoma and TBWA\Paris didn't campaign against them — they corrupted them. Working with 3D design specialists, they made micro-modifications to the most popular files: barrels too narrow for bullets, parts that no longer fit together, pins that couldn't reach far enough to fire. The files were re-uploaded with identical names to every forum and platform where the originals lived, promoted by fake gun enthusiast accounts until they outranked the real ones. By the time anyone noticed, the corrupted files had been downloaded over 13,000 times. See campaign ->
Netsafe's Re:Scam (DDB, 2018) built an AI bot with multiple personalities that posed as ordinary New Zealanders and replied to scam emails endlessly — wasting scammers' time so they couldn't target real victims. The Belgian Entertainment Association's Pirate Subtitles (TBWA, 2017) uploaded subtitle files for pirated films with deliberately incorrect dialogue, making Hollywood actors appear to call out viewers, for illegal downloading — then used bots to push the files to the top of every download ranking.
3. Make Their Fine Print the Ad
Find what they're hiding — and make sure everyone can see it.
The Eye Opening Test — Droit de Regard, BETC, 2021
In France, cheap glasses ads are everywhere. The average French consumer still pays €600 for their glasses — because the advertised prices come with conditions buried in fine print that most people can't read without glasses they don't yet own. Optician Droit de Regard wanted to position itself as the brand with nothing to hide. BETC travelled across Paris from one competitor's ad to the next and offered free eye tests on the spot — using each competitor's hidden conditions as the test material. The fine print that obscured the truth became the proof of the brand telling it. See campaign ->
Moms Demand Action's Groceries Not Guns (Grey, 2015) turned the same contrast logic on Kroger supermarkets: the campaign placed everyday items banned from their stores — scissors, alcohol under 21, dogs — next to the guns that were still freely permitted. The store's own policy became the campaign's most damning line.
4. Use Their Own Ideology Against Them
Find the belief they built their power on — and apply it to them.
Different — Samsung, DDB, 2024
Apple built its empire on thinking differently — the outsider brand for people who refused to conform. Samsung identified the irony no one had publicly named: with almost every hand in the world now holding an iPhone, Apple had become the most conformist position in the market. Samsung launched its Galaxy Z Flip5 by using Apple's own ideology against them — referencing the 1984 playbook directly and turning the original "think different" argument into a case for switching. What was once originality had become the establishment. Samsung stepped into the gap Apple left. See campaign ->
The Digital Public Library of America's Banned Book Club (FCB, 2023) applied the same structural flip to book banning: every time a politician banned a book from a library, DPLA added it to their database and made it available for free to anyone standing inside that very library via geo-fenced ads. The act of banning became the act of promotion. Launched in partnership with Barack Obama, the campaign reached people across more than 20 US states.
