Truth, used properly, compounds.
My 11-year-old heard a slogan on TV the other day and immediately objected.
“What a terrible tagline.”
She was talking about Buckley’s Mixture and its long-running line:
“It tastes awful. And it works.”
The campaign dates back to the 1980s in Canada and hasn’t wavered since.
From an eleven-year-old’s perspective, my daughter is right.
Why would anyone advertise that their product tastes disgusting?
Because the ad is not for her.
When I was a kid, my mother would give me a tablespoon of Buckley’s. It was absolutely HORRID.
I remember that vile taste vividly. I also remember that it worked, and that I took it again semi-willingly the next time I had a cold.
That’s the entire strategy.
Adults who see the commercial today know the brand has been telling this same story for decades.
The expectation is pre-loaded. You wouldn’t buy it expecting yummy wildberry flavor. You’d buy it for relief.
That matters.
By leading with an uncomfortable, unusual truth, the brand disarms you.
The honesty in the first half increases the credibility of the second.
If they are paying big bucks to publicly admit (in fact LEAD with) that the product tastes “awful,” they must be damn serious about its effectiveness.
It also reframes buyer reviews.
No one buys Buckley’s and complains that it tastes terrible. It really, really does. But that complaint has been totally neutralized. People mention the awful taste, and give it five stars.
If the product failed to work, that would have killed it decades ago.
In our review economy, it would go nowhere.
Customers think through these trade-offs more rationally than we give them credit for.
The inventor’s son, Frank Buckley, knew it. I remember him saying those surprising words himself in ‘80s commercials.
My daughter might prefer “tastes sensational.” But she doesn’t buy the medicine.
And many grown-ups are persuaded by evidence, not allure.
Sometimes the most powerful positioning move is to lean into the flaw that proves the benefit.
What is the absolute worst truth about your thing?
Now, what if you LED with it?
Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as product marketing consultants at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.