Jester
To live in the moment with delight.
Three case studies
Jester brands, in the field.
Three brands that have built operating systems out of this archetype, and what each one shows about how the Jester actually works in practice.
Case 01
Old Spice
Absurdity as confidence.
The 2010 Isaiah Mustafa campaign by Wieden+Kennedy turned a stale men’s grooming brand into a national in-joke. The Jester’s move: be funnier than the category permits, and the category will let you in.
Case 02
M&M’s
Play as product.
The candy-shell M&M characters have been advertising the brand longer than most marketing executives have been alive. The Jester sustains by never breaking character.
Case 03
Skittles
The non-sequitur as voice.
TBWA Chiat/Day’s Skittles work treats the brand as a license to make work that wouldn’t fit anywhere else: the singing rabbit, the touch-everything-becomes-Skittles man, the petting zoo.
Three commercials
The Jester, on screen.
Three spots that taught the rest of the industry what this archetype sounds and feels like in motion.
No. 01 · Old Spice
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
Wieden+Kennedy
“Hello, ladies. Look at your man. Now back to me.”
Isaiah Mustafa in a single-take monologue, no edits. The 30-second spot the entire industry took apart and tried to rebuild.
Watch on YouTube →
No. 02 · Skittles
Touch the Rainbow
TBWA\Chiat\Day
“I touched my own face once. It hasn’t stopped.”
A man whose touch turns everything into Skittles; he is, naturally, miserable about it. The absurdist run at its peak.
Watch on YouTube →
No. 03 · Snickers
You’re Not You When You’re Hungry
AMV BBDO
“Mike, you’re playing like Betty White out there.”
Betty White getting tackled in a backyard football game. One of the most efficient repositioning campaigns in modern advertising.
Watch on YouTube →
The Jester, dimensioned.
After Pearson & Mark, 2001- Drive
- To find what’s alive and playful in the present moment, and bring others along.
- Fear
- Boredom. Being boring. The world collapsing into obligation.
- Strategy
- Play. Improvise. Break tension with wit. Refuse seriousness as a matter of principle.
- Personality
- Mischievous. Spontaneous. Witty. Irreverent. Quick.
- Characteristics
- Playful voice, surprise and absurdity, broken rhythm, self-aware humor, never explains the joke.
Diagnostic questions
How to tell if your brand is working as a Jester.
External · Read by the market
- Does the work make people screenshot it, share it, quote it back to each other?
- Is the brand quoted in conversation in ways unrelated to purchase?
- Do critics like your work even when they don’t buy it?
- Is there a sense of mischief that competitors can’t replicate without looking try-hard?
Internal · Read inside the company
- Does the company have a genuine sense of humor about itself, or a brand voice that performs one?
- Are the people writing the jokes paid like the people writing the strategy?
- Do leaders allow weirdness to ship, or sand it off in review?
- Is play part of the work, or a Friday-afternoon culture activity?
These are easy questions to ask and difficult ones to answer honestly. The Five Layer Diagnostic is the instrument we use to answer them with rigor, across motivation, mind, temperament, persuasion, and expression. Read about the Diagnostic →
When the Jester distorts
The shadow form.
Humor as cruelty. Punchlines at someone’s expense.
Every archetype has a shadow. The work isn’t to avoid it, but to recognize it early enough to course-correct.