Tech Ads: Does saying "Don't Buy Our Product" Work?

Now reverse psychology - the art of making someone do a thing by asking them not to do it - has been a tool that's been used often in advertising, and most famously by Volkswagen when it famously referred to its Beetle as Lemon and even called it Ugly in 1959, Volkswagen again came out with an ad giving users 10 reasons not to buy one of their cars later. The heading of the ads seemed self-critical but the copy gently reminded you of why the product was actually a very good one.

Now, we have no problem with this approach as it is informational in nature. Where we think both Xiaomi and Nothing have gone BADLY wrong is in actually cocking a snook at other products and even the consumer. Let's start with the Xiaomi ad. Instead of really talking about the product, the ad goes off on a tangent, highlighting the perceived shortcomings of other phones and even seemingly making fun of consumers for using and liking "forgettable phones." It made the unfortunate error of defining itself not on its own strengths but on the weaknesses of others. Worse, it used a sneering tone that seemed to indicate that the phone was too good for consumers, who were happy with other phones. It really became a classic case of "you need our product to prove you are good," which is a very brave but risky positioning, and unfortunately totally out of sync with the brand's generally friendly and grounded messaging.

Then there is the Nothing Phone ad campaign. Once again, a front age ad, which basically poked fun at almost every other phone out there, and by implication, their users. Once again, the idea was perhaps a good one, but once again, the attempt was to define oneself in terms of the competition and by criticising a large part of one's consumer base in the process. The idea that a large number of consumers were using phones that were "tracked, hooked, influencer, numb...:" and a number of other things seemed a little disrespectful of those who had purchased them.