Turn insults you get into ads

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📝 Context

Topic: Social Media | Ads | Messaging & Copy
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B 
Research date: June 2025
Universities: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The University of Hong Kong, Duke University

When the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team was called “a bunch of jerks” on national TV, they slapped it on T-shirts and made nearly $900,000. 

A small restaurant did the same when accused of “satanic activity” and sold $15,000 worth of merchandise. 

The science says leaning into insults can sometimes make brands stronger instead of weaker, if done right.

P.S.: You don’t need to wait for an insult. Clever and relevant humor can make your brand seem more warm and competent, increasing your engagement.

📈 Recommendation

Reuse unfair or irrelevant insults against your brand. For example, if you get called a “birdbrain store” make an ad of birds running your store. On social media, this is a more effective way of handling complaints than ignoring or denying them or apologizing for them. 

People will perceive you as more confident and likable, increasing engagement on social media and performance of your ads.

🎓 Findings

• Reusing unjustified or unfair complaints can make a brand seem more confident, leading to better brand perceptions, increased engagement, and better ad performance.

• As part of 3 experiments, researchers found that:

  • When an electronics store embraced being an “Out of date, birdbrain store” in ads, it received a 26.7% higher CTR than when its ads responded with a denial of “Not an ‘out-of-date, bird brain of a store’.

  • When MTV reused the insult of being “Overly dramatic”, people were:

    • Were 25% more interested in the brand compared to when they denied the insult 

    • Found the brand 70.5% more humorous

    • Perceived MTV as 20.2% more confident than when they ignored the insults

  • When Vitamin Water reused the insult “ew.” in their ads, compared to ignoring the insult, it was perceived as:

    • 67% more humorous

    • 21% more confident

• The effect backfires if the person making the insult is considered vulnerable, making the brand seem like a bully:

  • When the insult came from a young male, there was no significant difference in brand bully perception.

  • When an elderly woman, considered vulnerable, made the insult, there was a 59.9% increase in perceptions of the brand as a bully when they reused the insult, compared to if they ignored it.

🧠 Why it works

• When something harmless goes against what we expect (e.g. a brand reposting an insulting comment about themselves), we often consider it funny.

• When we see a brand poking fun of themselves, or mentioning something critical someone’s said, it makes the brand seem confident and sure of themselves. When we see this self-assuredness from a brand, we’re more likely to like the brand.

• Similarly, when we see a brand replying humorously to rude reviews, their humor makes us want to buy from them more.

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✋ Limitations

• The study focused on how humorous and confident a brand was considered. It’s likely other factors beyond the social media posts also influenced this.

• The analysis looked at unjustified or irrelevant insults. Insults that are relevant and about a core feature (e.g. “There was hair in my food and it made me sick”) are unlikely to increase confidence and are best avoided, although this was not tested.

• The research didn’t look at whether existing brand loyalty or existing brand perceptions played a role in how successful reusing criticisms was. It’s likely brands perceived as serious and somber may not receive the same response.

• The study looked at brands using this as one-off cases. If a brand consistently highlights insults by reusing them, it would likely lose its effectiveness.

👀 Real-life example

After a Yelp review critique that their shop’s decor was “Disgustingly pro-women”, Flamingos Coffee Bar launched a new line of merchandise. 

❌ Issue: They correctly reappropriate the criticism in their merchandise line, but only mention it on their social media when selling their merch.

✅ Solution: Flamingos can further capitalize on this by:

• Highlighting on their merchandise that the “Disgustingly pro-women” tag came from a customer review.

• Taking clear stances on women’s issues and women’s empowerment. As a small brand, this political activism can help them gain more customers (for larger brands, this can backfire).

• Running special promotions, like discounts, on women-related special events (e.g. International Women’s Day, the Anniversary of the 19th Amendment’s ratification or local marches for women’s rights), which makes promotions more effective.

• Showcasing this review, not just the merchandise, on their social media and website as irrelevant, negative reviews alongside positive ones can increase people’s opinions of a brand.

🔍 Study type

Online experiments and field experiment (Meta ads with 27,830 impressions)

📖 Research

Bunch of Jerks: How Brands Can Benefit by Reappropriating Insults. Journal of Consumer Psychology (July 2025)

🏫 Researchers

• Katherine M. Du. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

• Lingrui Zhou. The University of Hong Kong.

• Keisha M. Cutright. Duke University.

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

🎁 Bonus mini-insight

Check your knowledge from previous insights (for paid Platform members only). Read the full insight here if you are already a member.

🎓 Insight: Praise your competitors to boost your brand

📈 Recommendation: Publicly praise your direct competitors in social media posts (e.g. congratulate them on an award or anniversary). This will make people like your brand more, and be more likely to buy from you.

✋ Careful: The effect works when people consider the praise you’re giving to be risky for your brand. Make sure you give genuine praise and it’s directed towards an actual competitor, not just any brand.

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