What They Need vs What They Think They Need

It's 2008 and Canadian Club is experiencing the 16th year of year-over-year sales declines. 

They feel their problem is that Canadian Club is thought of as "your dad's drink". And young people, in their social life, don't want to be associated with their father's way of doing things. 

So they turn to BBDO who gave them this campaign ... that embraced dads. 

The BBDO team explained:

“The main obstacle was that the client didn’t want to remind this audience that Canadian Club was their dad’s drink of choice, someone who obviously isn’t that cool. Our [creative brief] mandatories were to show a cocktail, the logo, and whatever we do don’t mention 'dad.' When we read that it sparked a thought, which was: Wait, my dad might not be 'cool' anymore, but when he was my age he was a stud.”

"Sometimes what a brand needs is the opposite of
what it thinks it needs."

Greg Reese