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English department store Selfridges created the Silence Room in 2013.
- Anti-ads are exactly what they sound like: Ads that tell consumers not to buy a product, make some self-referential joke, or poke fun at the concept of
advertising itself. - Companies like Patagonia, Supreme, and Volkswagen have built their brands with these tactics.
- Other brands, like Coca-Cola's failed brand OK Soda, couldn't drum up a cult following before buckling.
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Sometimes, the best way to get consumers to buy a product is by telling them not to buy it.
That's what apparel company Patagonia did when it ran an ad on Black Friday in 2011 that read, "Don't buy this jacket."
Some ad campaigns, like Patagonia's, are considered anti-ads: Advertising that pokes fun at itself, doesn't reveal the product whatsoever, or uses some other seemingly unmarketable device to draw attention to a brand. It may seem counterintuitive, but when done in a fresh way, it works, especially for millenials and Gen Zers.
"Younger consumers are more skeptical and so sophisticated, and they've grown up bombarded by this stuff," Allen Adamson, adjunct professor of
Most recently, chip maker Doritos created an ad to appeal to Gen Z by stripping its bags of all text, and reducing its logo to its most abstract form, the triangle.
Here are eight notable anti-ad campaigns, from successes like Supreme to failed ventures like OK Soda.
