Earned, Not Generated.
The only newsletter where Dutch oyster farmers, wet dogs, and 50 years of grit walk into a bar and remind you what craft looks like.
Dear marketing fans and everyone still believing human-made ads can make you feel things.
This newsletter (with some new understated style images) is about two ads that I’ve seen recently that actually made me feel something. Rare I know. Obsessed would be too strong a word. But they’re in that ballpark for sure.
The first is the unlikely story of a Dutch oyster farming family. Of course, it’s advertising so it’s also the story of the 50th anniversary of the Carhartt Active Jac. So yes, it’s a jacket ad. But if the jacket works for the gloomy, wet, cold looking world of Dutch oyster farming? Well, capitalism has to capitalism, and all that. Especially on Black Friday week.
To be fair it’s more of a short film than an ad. A moody looking story of families, of fathers and sons, of grit and legacy and most importantly about the time it takes to truly earn things. That’s a message we need in time of instant gratification. Of AI answering in 3 seconds. Of being able to binge it all right now.
As a brand it so perfectly gets you to this line of ”You don’t turn 50, you earn 50” (Aint’ that the truth). The strategy was simple. Putting real people in front of cameras in natural light, doing their jobs wearing the jackets works. Magic.
If you compare that to the 70,000 prompts of the Coca Cola Holidays ad and you couldn’t show case a different approach. You can’t script this part. The filmmakers?Twin brothers. Because of course they are.
Which brings me to the second ad that has been prominently displayed in my browser tab starring at me for 7 days. This ad is from YETI. An ad that is perfect in its desire to explicitly tell you not to get anyone a YETI. And I’m someone who has no interest or use in a YETI. Or frankly the outdoors. My idea of a good adventure is a hotel bar.
The cautionary tale is actually a love letter to all the adventures you’ll get if you are the kind of person who has a YETI. Or needs one.
It’s not the same style or tone of the Carhartt ad, but they speak the same languages. You can see the difference between two brothers making a film that happens to be an ad, and Wieden+Kennedy making a very tightly made traditional ad, ad.
Both spots understand they aren’t just selling a jacket or a cooler. They are selling where the products can really take you. The YETI spot doesn’t give you the family history, but it lays it on thick with lines like, “Unless you like dogs that are always wet.” (No thank you. But I get it.)
It’s a warning to everyone who gets one, that the humble YETI will become, most likely, 80% of their personality. This isn’t some contrived “inspiring the human spirit” nonsense. This is the warning of “we make coolers so good they will probably ruin your relationships.” Buy the YETI, become a muddy adventuring mess.
The YETI ad certainly dips their toes more into the icy waters of the current gift giving gauntlet with a killer call to action, “No, don’t get them YETI. Unless you really love them.” Or don’t like them enough to have them around every weekend.
I guess that your late 2025 marketing strategy can be almost as simple as hiring quality humans with a POV, point your cameras at real things and let the craft do the work. A novel concept. What do you think?
The Blue Jays are getting their hands slapped for sort of sponsoring some boxing in Japan.
Debate: Taco Bell seems to have invented a rolled quesadilla which is now just a burrito right?
A director auditions AI actors for a Hallmark movie with hilarious results. While i’m here, highly recommend Christmas Above The Clouds and this companion episode of the Bingemas Podcast. (Side note: The main character’s name is Ella Neezer).
Yes, I do want to make a Gingerbread Dive Bar.
The Zohran Design Effect
You can already see how the design system and style of Zohran Mamdani’s campaign created by Forge are seeping into things like NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis’s campaign.
I honestly thought some more clients would be talking about this Mamdani design stuff - shout out to my man Keith (who drops a pretty mean Hawaii 5-0 reference) who may have come around to yellow on red colour ways despite the dominance of the Kansas City Chiefs (who actually may or may not make the playoffs at this stage).
Like most things, the Lewis version (which only really started more in earnest about six weeks ago in his feed) is not as rich or even as interesting (Spoiler Alert: it’s the lack of colours) as Mamdani’s.
You can see obvious hints of inspiration. And a thousand thought pieces that will stretch out over the next decade like Obama’s 2008 design did. Blah blah blah: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But it still has to be good.
Ad History: Classic Nike ad (1999)
PSA: I’m here for any ad that can use the Duke of Hazzard theme song.
Last call: Dive Bar Holiday Dirty Cranberry Old Fashioned
A Dirty Spiced Cranberry Old Fashioned would definitely make your forefathers uncomfortable. Putting some cranberry juice in a perfectly good Old Fashioned? That’s outrageous. But festive.
I like think of this more of brandy-less Wisconsin style drink. Just muddle up those cranberries and maybe a little orange with the cinnamon simple syrup and don’t make it too fussy at all. It can look ugly as sin.
There are no rules in a dive bar cocktail. This is a vehicle for ensuring that any botched email or client presentation is simply numbed away by cranberry soaked with way too much whiskey. Don’t forget to put that on your time sheet.
The cocktail that keeps on giving:
3 oz Rye Whiskey or Bourbon (if you have any left)
3/4 oz cranberry juice
1/4 oz cinnamon simple syrup
4 dashes orange bitters
Muddle with a few cranberry’s and a chunky orange slice. Then add a cinnamon stick for garnish.
Then contemplate the Oscar Mayer Hostess Holiday Meat Tree. The “ornaments taste so good!” Pure nightmare fuel.
The Drink Cart is your weekly fuel for pop culture brains and ad junkies. A cocktail of ad insights and hot takes that feel like you’re hanging at your favourite dive bar after launching your latest campaign.
The Dirty Spiced Cranberry Old Fashioned is a yes for me!