Emotional marketing—why brands don’t have to be fun

Stop me if this sounds familiar. We open on a man in a tight gray suit crammed into an even tighter gray cubicle—dark circles around his eyes, desk overflowing with work. He looks almost broken. A friendly coworker peeks over the partition and offers him a stick of gum, a scratch-off ticket, a car insurance deal. Our guy tries the product and is so overcome with joy that he starts to dance. He breaks into a routine, music blasts, ties are loosened, backup dancers appear. Confused coworkers watch before joining in, and soon a full parade is prancing through the streets. The easy way out This formula of “use product, start dancing” has infiltrated every market, from food delivery to used cars. Even Apple’s done it. So. Many. Times. And it’s clear why: Dance is the purest expression of happiness. There is even a touch of transgression in dancing somewhere unexpected that gives the ad an aesthetic of rebellion without actually ruffling any feathers, the way sanitized skateboarding has been used to signify counterculture. Ad Age Best Places to Work 2025 50 companies doing a standout job See the full list here Dance is the simplest way to express “product = good” without having to explain why. But this positivity can often be pushed so far that it becomes ineffective, to the point that brands don’t even address the problems they’re here to solve. Consumers want emotional realism It explains why some brands have struggled to break through on platforms such as TikTok, where audiences there expect a real point of view. Sprout Social’s research shows that 70% of consumers want companies to take a stand on social issues, and that number is growing. When people demand emotional realism, a lot of brands are stepping up to the mic to find they’ve got nothing to say. So, if not joy, then what else? A brand can be positive as long as it also has a reason to be, but other emotions can get us to engage. Confrontation, vulnerability, mockery, anxiety and brutal realism have all been used to break out of the generic and connect deeply with people. Here is how some brands have done it and what we can learn. Patagonia Patagonia, whose business purpose is to “save our home planet,” faces issues around climate change head-on. Its “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign questioned the careless consumerism that taxes our landfills. And when President Donald Trump sold off chunks of national parks for mining during his first term, the retailer added a “Vote the assholes out” message to its tags. Patagonia, which exhibits a willingness to fight in an industry mired in greenwashed platitudes, was recently named the most reputable brand in the U.S. Ben & Jerry’s The ice cream manufacturer is famous for its history of activism. It’s not uncommon for companies to get involved in good causes, but what sets Ben & Jerry’s apart is its honesty about how far this can go. “The history of our country is that nothing happens until people start putting their bodies on the line and risk getting arrested,” said Ben Cohen before he and fellow co-founder Jerry Greenfield were arrested at a 2016 Washington, D.C., protest against unregulated campaign donations and attacks in many states on citizens’ right to vote. Warby Parker Eyewear manufacturer Warby Parker didn’t wait long to start burning bridges in an industry where companies outsource their brands, retailing and the design of their glasses to other firms—passing those costs along to customers. Gen Z Career Forum Get practical advice on launching your career and excelling in the industry Register today Instead of playing ball, the company bypassed the middlemen and publicized its lower-cost approach. By defying the status quo, it built trust with customers who have had enough and is now valued at $3.1 billion. Heineken Then there’s Heineken’s ‘Worlds Apart’ spot. The social experiment involves several pairs of people with strong political views working together to build a bar before the host reveals their contrasting opinions. The pairs, including a climate change believer alongside a denier and a trans woman alongside a transphobe, are then offered the chance to sit at the bar and discuss their differences over a beer. Such “empathy experiment” spots are not uncommon, but they often hide behind the aesthetics of politics without actually showing anything a potential customer may disagree with. Heineken succeeds by not only facing actively divisive topics but also holding the subjects of the experiment accountable. The video is deeply uncomfortable (at least right up until the end), and in that way, it feels real and honest and cements the company as one that brings people together on things that matter. What all these brands have in common is a belief they stand behind and make good on. Companies completely dedicated to profits could not succeed here because they cannot fake a purpose (though it hasn’t stopped them from trying). People smell B.S. a mile away. But when a brand has a strong purpose at its core, is honest about the problems within and without, connects at a genuine emotional level and doesn’t pretend bad days don’t exist, it can be more powerful than any service with a smile. NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today

Emotional marketing—why brands don’t have to be fun

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