Watch above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
So Steve, have you ever watched a campaign years later? Decades later, especially when you’re doing research to do a new Sticky Sales Story, and you go, oh man! I’ve got one that I remember, I thought I remembered really, really well, and I do. I remember the main things. I remember, “Oh yeah!” I remember walls and fridges and fences all being busted up, and “Hey, Kool-Aid!” And then I go back and go, “Oh, this is going to be a great campaign and blah, blah.” And I remembered that over at the Empire Builders podcast, you did an episode on Kool-Aid.

Stephen Semple:
An old one in the first year. Episode 49.

Matthew Burns:
See? So I didn’t even remember when it started, and then I went back, and I watched, don’t get me wrong, there’s so much goodness to the campaign and the brand’s doing well, guys. But I want to just show you what one of the first acts for Kool-Aid looked like. And then beat me up on the comments. Tell me I’m an idiot, that I now, looking back, I think it’s kind of hokey and strange because it did work, but watch this old, old, old Kool-Aid ad.

 

Girl: I get hot and thirsty riding a skateboard.
Boy: Me too. This is a job for Kool-Aid.
Both: Hey, Kool-Aid!
Singer: Kool-Aid is here, bringing you fun. Kool-Aid’s got thirst on the run. Get a big, wide, happy, ear-to-ear Kool-Aid smile.
Girl: Tastes great. Our friend’s cool.
Boy: Our friend is Kool-Aid.
Girl: Kool-Aid brand soft drink mix.
Singer: Oh yeah!

Matthew Burns:
I don’t know why I never remembered the ah ah ah. It’s so out of place in the middle of the song. Oh my God. But the trademark, right? Hey, Kool-Aid. And then the big bust through, and he was yelling.

Stephen Semple:
Oh yeah!

Matthew Burns:
Okay. So Steve, you know about the campaign.

Stephen Semple:
Well, here’s the funny thing, and this has been sitting in this spot on my shelf for a while now. If you look at the top there-

Matthew Burns:
Oh, you’ve got a toy back there. You’ve got a Kool-Aid Man.

Stephen Semple:
Kool-Aid Man!

Matthew Burns:
Oh man. I’m a little jealous.

Stephen Semple:
And there’s a Kool-Aid book, and there’s a Kool-Aid museum.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, really?

Stephen Semple:
Yeah.

Matthew Burns:
Did Disney have anything to do with it? Because it would be awesome if Disney had anything to do with it.

Stephen Semple:
It would be. And I’ve not been to the Kool-Aid Museum in Hastings. And I know I’m going down a different path here, but the big thing that Kool-Aid was really known for, especially in the early days, was its giveaways. The whole thing is that if you collected 10, you got this, and if you collected three, you got that.

Matthew Burns:
You collected the UPCs, right?

Stephen Semple:
Yes.

Matthew Burns:
Yes, that’s right. I remember that. Yeah.

Stephen Semple:
And the number, seemingly, this museum is stuffed full of them, and they don’t think that they have all of them that were given. They just did so many different giveaways over the years when Kool-Aid first came out. It has been around for a long, long time. I’m just trying to remember when Kool-Aid came out. In 1927.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, it’s old.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah. And in 53, it was sold to General Foods. That was when grocery stores were emerging at that time.

Matthew Burns:
Right. Yeah, yeah.

Stephen Semple:
And one of the things that they were also really big at was store displays because they realized store displays were really, really, really important. So they had these really complex store displays. They did these giveaways. And then of course, when the media came along, they were one of the first companies to jump onto television ads.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, wow. Okay.

Stephen Semple:
And doing them. Yeah. They were very, very, very innovative in the early days in terms of store displays and grocery stores and freemiums and all this stuff.

Matthew Burns:
I remember us talking about the 1984 Apple ad, where you know you’re big when pop culture kind of takes over and kind of mimics or has fun at your expense. In 1994, they made a Lego edition of the throwing of the sledgehammer, which was interesting enough.

And then with Kool-Aid, as soon as you start getting mocked and ridiculed or made fun of or mimicked at all in any way, you know you’ve made it. You know you’re part of the lexicon. People aren’t going to forget you. And it was all around this shocking awe breaking through whatever’s in front of him to get there. I mean, you have to think about it. He’s the representation of a glass jug.

Stephen Semple:
Well, right. One could argue that’s ridiculous. He’s a glass jug. He’s not breaking through anything. It is breaking him.

Matthew Burns:
Correct. Well, that’s the point, which is, listen, we’ve said this in the past. If you’re going to lean into something, lean into the absurd, go all the way into it, make it absurd because then people realize what you’re doing. They don’t think that you’re trying to be authentic. They know you’re being ridiculous and crazy. We did this with the Raisin Bran episode.

Stephen Semple:
Well, and when you talk about pop culture, Kool-Aid also appeared in Family Guy.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, correct. That’s right. Yes.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah. He’s a Funko Pop, man.

Matthew Burns:
He’s a Funko Pop. I think what they did really well at the beginning was they targeted kids. As you said, they did the freemium. They got into the mindset of the family. I remember in the 70s and 80s, when I grew up, 80s, probably more, I remember a packet of Kool-Aid, and then I don’t know, like 17 cups of sugar went into your pitcher, and you mixed it all up, and you made Kool-Aid. And I remember the experience of making Kool-Aid as a kid. I remember they made it such a… It’s not like you just open something up and drink it, and you go away. It was an experience to make Kool-Aid. Everything about it…

I remember making it with my mom. I remember trying to make it on my own. I always made it way too sweet. Mom never made it sweet enough, and that was the way it worked. But they leaned into this really crazy idea of a glass jug that never spilled, by the way, when it broke through anything. None of the shards of wood from the fence ended up inside the Kool-Aid and then lodged in somebody’s throat, magically. That didn’t happen either.

So they did this really ostentatious, big play that got remembered. And then it just stuck with us. And the big scream of, oh yeah. I mean, do something and do it well, own it all the way, and don’t be shy to do it for a long time. Again, this campaign, 1927, is when they started. I don’t know the first campaign, but it was early.

Stephen Semple:
Well, the jug didn’t exist in the early days. The jug came later when they started doing the television ads. But they were black and white ads. Still going back to the 50s. We are still going back a long way. And it seemed like it was even the smile and whatnot. It was even inspired. I forget the ad agency that created it, but it was like they were looking at this jug of Kool-Aid, and it was sweating, and somebody put a little face on it.

Matthew Burns:
It’s a finger mark of a smile. Oh, that’s cool. See, I like that.

Stephen Semple:
Lore has it that’s kind of what inspired a little bit of the creation of the Kool-Aid Man.

Matthew Burns:
Again, guys, if you’re trying to do some marketing on your own, if you’re a marketing agency, if you’re an independent marketer, or you’re a business owner, you just want to try something, guys, lean into big and ridiculous. Don’t overexplain what you’re doing because then that just makes it silly, and nobody’s going to like it. And have fun and be playful, but stick to it. Don’t do an ad and then not get a response and then quit because that’s just a waste of your money. Run the thing for a while before you start testing it.

I don’t know how to say this enough. We’ve got campaigns right now that we’re in a year and our customers are, “Ooh, I’m not too sure, and blah, blah, blah.” And we’re seeing some… Be patient and lean all the way in, and you’re going to do well, I promise you.

Okay. Stephen, thank you, my man. This was from my childhood.

Stephen Semple:
He’ll go back to his place on the shelf.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, it’s too funny. I got to get one now. Now I’m jealous. All right, everybody. Listen, we’ll talk to everybody on the next episode.

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