Patagonia’s 10/10 Black Friday posts

Another day, another bit of Patagonia copy in the swipe file.

(Patagonia team, if you're reading this, you don't need a restraining order. Promise.)

Now, we all know Patagonia loves using the consumerism of Black Friday to draw attention to their mission. (We’ve talked about that famous “Don’t buy this jacket” ad last year.)

And this year's were absolute bangers too. No notes.

First of all, of course these ads are funny, sharp, and completely on-brand. They're bold and attention-grabby. They literally tick all of the boxes for what campaigns like this should do.

But we've written about Patagonia doing that so much on the blog, in the newsletter, in the swipe file... that we thought we'd look at something a little different.

And our favourite thing about this campaign is, beneath all that, there's some really old school rhetorical cleverness going on. (And when we say old school, we mean old school. Like Ancient Greece old school.)

All of the posts in this set are based on something reductio ad absurdum, an Ancient Greek debate move where you disprove an argument by following it to its logical conclusion until it collapses under its own weight.

Basically, if the conclusion is ridiculous, the premise must be wrong too.

They could have said "Big oil doesn't want us to think sea levels are rising" and called it a day.

But they knew that telling the truth is only half the battle, you've also got to make sure people hear it.

So instead they said "Sea levels aren't rising. Boats are just getting taller."

Too good.

(Side note: we'd put money on the copywriters not having a philosophy textbook open when they wrote this. They were probably just writing what felt right. But that's the thing about techniques like this: the more interesting ideas and references you feed your brain, the more they show up in your work without you having to force them. Which is why we write this swipe file.)

How to nick this for your brand: Next time you want to push back against something in your category or something a competitor does — say a lazy assumption, an incorrect claim, a widespread bit of nonsense — try this:

Take their argument and follow it to its logical conclusion.

Then make a joke out of that conclusion.

Let's pretend we're working on a brief for a big, hooky bit of copy for a UK daily sunscreen brand so we can see it in action.

The big assumption you're challenging is: "you only need sunscreen when it's really sunny out".

So you ask yourself, what's the most ridiculous version of this idea? You might end up on the idea that the sun is only in the sky for 6 days of the year, so why do you need a daily sunscreen?

Then you go again. How can you show this as ridiculous? (Note: you want to show, not tell. Because telling doesn't work half as well.)

Everyone has one family member who turns up to every BBQ looking like a piece of beef jerky or that is bright pink because they spent a day gardening. How does that happen if you only need sunscreen a few days of the year?

Boom. There you go. There's the seed of an idea.

And you end up with something like this: Yeah, you're right. You only need sunscreen when it's properly sunny. The fact your Uncle Barry looks like he's made of about 65% leather is probably just a weird genetic thing.

👆 Something like this makes for great top of funnel copy when you're challenging assumptions because it's primed to make people rethink and reframe ideas in their heads. Give it a go.