Stop competing. Start contradicting (The art of saying “f you” in marketing without saying it)

Most brands market like insecure teenagers fighting for attention at the dinner table.

“Mom, look! I’m better at sustainability than Oatly!” “Well I have 10% more active ingredients than them!” It’s exhausting, very predictable and worst of all, it always ends with the corporate equivalent of “you’re both great in your own ways, sweethearts.” And that sentence is the death of differentiation. Because when you’re trying to win by comparison, you’ve already lost.

But the best brands don’t scream “I’m better than them.” They calmly assert, “Actually, I’m not like them at all.” And in a world of copy-paste logos and soundalike slogans, that kind of confidence is what actually gets noticed.

Competing is a race to the middle.

When your only point of difference is being slightly cheaper, slightly faster, or slightly more ethical than the next brand, you don’t look superior—you look desperate. And desperation doesn’t build brand love. It builds discounts.

“F*ck you” marketing, on the other hand, is not about arrogance, but independence.

It’s a mindset that says “we don’t care what the category is doing and we’re certainly not trying to win over everyone.” It’s not “here’s why we’re better.” It’s “here’s why we’re not even the same species.”

Look at Liquid Death. They rebranded water as a countercultural statement. Suddenly, hydration wasn’t a chore or a necessity, it was fkn rad. A statement.

Or Oatly. Instead of saying “we’re better than milk,” they just said “milk is weird” in giant, uncomfortable typography. They weren’t just making a comparison—they were questioning the entire category.

Then there’s Dr. Squatch, who didn’t compare soap formulas or brag about ingredients. They just decided that soap should be manly and hilarious. The result is a brand that sells more than regular hygiene. It sells an identity.

Saying “f*ck you” in marketing isn’t about being offensive. It’s about being unforgettable. It’s about rejecting the script, ignoring the competition, and becoming the only option that even feels worth paying attention to.

How to do that? Well, here’s some practical tips for you :

1. Stop benchmarking. Don’t frame your value by what the competition does. Frame it by what you believe in—even if (especially if) it goes against the category norm.

2. Choose a villain. It doesn’t have to be a rival brand. It can be an idea, a behaviour, a cultural norm. Oatly made milk the villain. Liquid Death made boring hydration the enemy. Who are you rebelling against?

3. Ditch the feature list, sell the feeling. No one cares about 12-hour battery life. They care about what that means. Elevate the message from “what it is” to “why it matters” in a way only your brand would say.

4. Take a side, loudly. Neutrality is boring. Take a position that risks alienating some people so you can deeply resonate with others. Bold opinions are a shortcut to brand affinity.

5. Write like you mean it. Cut the corporate politeness. Be provocative, be weird, be memorable. If your copy sounds like it could be written by ChatGPT 1.0 on Xanax, start again.

6. Make the brand the character. Give your brand a voice that can’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. Make it a person people want to follow, not just a product they might buy.

7. Be comfortable being “not for everyone.” You don’t need mass appeal—you need the right people to fall in love. Niche hard. Polarise on purpose.

8. Break the rules. Say the thing your competitors are too scared to. Use the design element that “shouldn’t work.” Contradiction creates curiosity. And curiosity converts.

9. Market like you’re talking to a cult, not a crowd. You’re not convincing, you're inviting. Make people feel like they're joining something exclusive, a little dangerous, and definitely cooler than what everyone else is doing.

10. Don’t apologise. If you’re going to be bold, commit. Half-assed rebellion reads as insecurity. Full-assed rebellion reads as pure brand power.

-Sophie, Writer