Should you’ve been present within the universe at any level over the past handful of years, you’ve probably encountered a can of Liquid Dying. At first, you may need been scared— the sinister gothic phrase mark, the black and gold colour scheme, the melting cranium icon. Then, you in all probability rolled your eyes on the ridiculousness of the overt machismo. Even the identify: Liquid Dying? You’ve obtained to be kidding me.
Properly, they’re.
Liquid Dying is a beverage firm with a model constructed round enjoying with ranges of parody and satire. Hyper-self-aware, Liquid Dying takes a tongue-in-cheek method to all elements of their branding, thumbing their nostril at typical advertising methods, campaigns, model programs, and packaging. From the tone of their copywriting (see the “MURDER YOUR THIRST” tagline), to their provocative social media posts, Liquid Dying continues to placed on a masterclass in creating an authentically compelling model customers can’t look away from.
I put myself in that class of captivated shopper, and reached out to the wild minds over at Liquid Dying to be taught a bit extra about what in God’s identify they’re as much as over there. Their VP of Inventive, Andy Pearson, was gracious sufficient to reply just a few of my questions beneath.
The place does your model voice come from? How did you go about growing this cheeky, nose-thumbing POV?
Liquid Dying is actually the product of all the pieces that we’ve ingested through the years, thrown in a paper bag, combined up, after which shaken out— skate movies, steel reveals, Mad Journal, George Carlin standup, shitty TV adverts, Jackass, design annuals, SNL, Grownup Swim. Should you take a look at the sort of stuff we make, it’s all the time a satirical tackle the world round us, significantly the world of promoting. And we’re attempting to combine high-brow, thought-provoking concepts with low-brow humor. It appeals to all elements of your mind, which is what the perfect humor and leisure on the earth does.
How did the idea for Liquid Dying originate?
Our co-founder and CEO [Mike Cessario] was an promoting inventive himself, so he noticed how all the pieces was marketed from the within. He had a realization that each one the manufacturers that have been good for you had boring, stale advertising that solely talked to the identical group of individuals. However manufacturers that have been unhealthy for you— like beer, soda, sweet— have been insanely enjoyable and sucked individuals in. So the thought grew to become, What if we might take one thing good for you however act prefer it wasn’t? Then we might make it so enjoyable and compelling, it would truly outdo all of the bad-for-you manufacturers. Nobody had ever considered it that manner.
Why do you assume the plenty have responded so favorably to this model voice/Liquid Dying?
As a result of there’s by no means fairly been a model like Liquid Dying earlier than.
We’re keen to place concepts and content material out into the world that no model would dream of. I typically like to think about it as a type of loopy SNL commercials… but it surely truly got here to life and you may actually purchase it. It appears virtually too insane to be actual, however it’s. Clearly we promote superb water, iced tea, and merch, however on the finish of the day, we’re actually promoting leisure.
The world is so severe. It’s good to convey individuals from someplace they least anticipated it: a random beverage firm. And on prime of that, we’re utilizing that leisure to assist individuals really feel higher about making more healthy and extra sustainable selections for themselves, their households, and the planet. Irrespective of who you’re, that’s one thing all of us need.
What’s your largest pet peeve or cling up in terms of typical advertising methods?
Entrepreneurs and advertisers assume the world wants extra advertising and promoting. I spent 13 years working at advert businesses. I had a good time, however everyone seems to be a) in their very own bubble and b) does all the pieces the identical manner it’s all the time been achieved. Only a few individuals cease to query if there’s a greater option to do issues. That’s the entire thought behind Liquid Dying: There’s a greater option to do all the pieces in the event you simply cease for a minute and give it some thought. Water in plastic bottles? That’s all from the advertising technique to promote bottled water primarily based on purity. Nobody stopped to query it for many years, and take into consideration the numerous billions of tons of plastic waste that has been created in consequence. Too many sensible, humorous individuals are utilizing their expertise on issues that aren’t serving to the world get higher.
How do you retain pushing the envelope of absurdity as a model?
Identical to any entertainer, the extra stuff we put out on the earth, the extra we perceive what works. A standup comic exams materials on stage. TV reveals typically discover their footing in subsequent seasons. For us, we simply maintain attempting to place extra genuinely hilarious stuff out on the earth, and it provides us extra concepts about what we need to do subsequent. We now have a queue of so many issues we need to make. We simply want we had extra time to make all of them.
