Orange. Vanilla. Coke. Put that sentence together, and you get, “Orange Vanilla Coke,” Coca Cola’s newest flavor since 2007. Doesn’t that sound crazy? As a passionate aspiring copywriter, I am drawn to particular campaigns, and Coke’s latest campaign works. Here is why.

What is the truth behind this new product? Well, it sounds absurd, and Coke exploits this in an engaging way that is fun and retrospective. How can these three flavors work together? Well, it just so happens it is a fantastic collision of a combination of flavors. Coca-Cola effectively exploits this truth.

 

 

Great ads start with insight into what they are selling. The foundational idea of the ad begins with an adjective and a truth.

Coke sells happiness in a can and decided to do something crazy to sell a new kind of joy in a different way. The flavor of orange vanilla has always been known to be sold in ice cream trucks during the summertime, which is a period of happy memories for adults looking back to their childhood.

BOOM. Weiden and Kennedy, the agency who made the commercial, are not selling a new soft drink. They are selling summertime nostalgia of your childhood when you were chasing after the ice cream truck to get an orange vanilla popsicle or push pop.

Here is a basic “mathematical-philosophical” breakdown of how this ad works before my final analysis of the execution.

Adjectives = Crazy, Collision, Combination.
Truths= Popsicles, Nostalgia, Summertime, and Joy.

This may sound like a lot of bedlams because the three flavors combined are so crazy it creates a collision of thoughts if the new flavor would work or not. Take those adjectives and apply them to the truths.

Coke adjectives + Coke truths and insights = final execution.

The execution is the final result of an ad. What this ad does is what a great first kiss is like on a first date. Weiden and Kennedy go in at 90% and meets the viewer, forcing us to go the last 10%.

I could only imagine walls upon walls covered with post-it notes filled with ideas to finally stumble upon this execution. This creative ideation is what it takes to make a great ad.

Take nostalgic music from 70’s exploitation films. Add a crazy car chase with three trucks representing the three flavors and truths, and you have your final execution with an ensuing explosion at the end.

The Coca-Cola truck represents happiness, and the orange truck relates to summertime. Last but not least, the vanilla ice cream truck equates to summertime nostalgia of childhood.

This is exciting, and it engages us because of how over the top it is as the new flavor of Coke. The ad is fun for the viewer because they are lead to see a collision of the three come together in a fulfilling pandemonium climax.

But, wait.

There is no epic car crash in the commercial or one that is seen at least. It alludes to the fact that when those trucks stop at a halt or possibly crash, they evolve into a can of Orange Vanilla Coke, creating an amazingly over fantasized origin story. This makes the viewer come up with their own conclusion.

What made this execution effective is that it allowed the viewer to participate. The ad went 90%, and it enabled the viewer to participate and go the other 10%.

This commercial was the first ad in a very long time to make me get up and walk to Walgreens to purchase a few bottles. When you taste Orange Vanilla Coke for the first time, you actually do find the truths that Weiden and Kennedy sell in this ad.

Remember,

“The Zos Knows”

-David Zosel 

If you want to support my writing and for me to be able to create more content you can make a donation to either of these links:

 

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I am the Kung Fu copywriter, and I have mastered the philosophy of emotional content, which is like a finger pointing to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory. Being a copywriter, you need to understand emotional content, universal truths, and to learn how to write with a style of having no style. This is because you need to be chameleonic and write with different voices for different voices. You have to know how to become creative and technical to become unstoppable. I strive to become the greatest Kung Fu Copywriting master, and wouldn’t it be cool if __________ Agency was the place that gave me my start?

Remember,

“The Zos Knows”

-David Zosel 

If you want to support my writing and for me to be able to create more content you can make a donation to either of these links:

 

Venmo or Patreon

Describe yourself in six words.

Curious, Courageous, Cunning, Creative, Compassionate, Cool.

What site do you waste the most time on? Sell us on wasting our time there.

As of the past month, I have been really into YouTube channels that show people living out of their cars. These people do more with less because living out of your vehicle takes audacity. They find ways to use creativity to create solutions to life’s creatures of comfort. They solve the problems of paying for rent, electric, gas, and other types of major bills. If they want to travel, then they can drive to their destination without even worrying about paying for a hotel. The lives that these people lead are just fascinating. I have seen vans with toilets, showers, internet, televisions, and anything you can think of. What is cool about these channels is that it makes you think about why we need all of this stationary excess. Why not minimize and be mobile? Humans are designed to be nomadic and roam the earth. Wanderlust is a magical thing, and these people have been chosen by a life that must be lived in passing through.

Write a backstory for your favorite emoji.

The top hat emoji because no one uses it. It made me special because a top hat is an enigma. There is lore behind a top hat. From powerful men in the 18th century to magicians and rockstars. I felt connected to something that made people wonder. This all began when I had a Guns and Roses phase in college where I became obsessed with Slash. I even bought a few top hats and wore them everywhere. It was a great phase, but I’m glad I grew out of it. If I wanted to break the ice with a girl, I would send her three top hats and ask her to choose one. It’s a better opening line than, “Hey.” Whatever she picked, I’d say she won a date with me, and oddly enough it worked. Other than meeting girls, I’d do that three top hat line to anyone, regarding anything. My favorite combination to use with the top hat would be top hat, sunglasses smiley and a bowl of soup. Everyone knew the soup meant pho because I am half Asian.

To whoever is reading this, I am putting up three top hats. Choose one. If you chose the left, you have a copywriter willing to fill up many walls with ideas and headlines. If you wanted the middle one, then you have a copywriter that is willing to learn and take direction to develop into a talent that will help the campaign succeed. If you choose the right one, then you will get one of the hardest working writers the agency will ever see. I don’t think you can lose with anyone you picked.

Remember,

“The Zos Knows”

-David Zosel 

If you want to support my writing and for me to be able to create more content you can make a donation to either of these links:

 

Venmo or Patreon

I knew I had to do something to impress her. No, not my teacher, but LG, my first crush. Considering that every boy had a crush on her, I needed a way to stand out from the other 13 boys in the class. I wasn’t the best in sports, the cutest, the smartest, the most charming, or funniest at the time. So, I choose the bad boy route. It was my only option.

What can a 7-year-old do to portray a bad boy image to impress a girl? No, I wasn’t going to put glue in her hair, or start a snowball fight by throwing it at her. I had a better idea.

Every day our class walked to the lunch room to get milk for milk break. On the way back, we passed the library, and there was a quick right turn that we had to make to get back to class.

I strategically remembered that I placed myself in the middle of the class line, making sure LG was behind me.

As we walked past the library and the front half of the class line made that right turn, I stopped the back half.

“You guys let’s go to the library,” I whispered.

Naturally, they followed me to the library because I lied to them and said that the teacher said it would be okay if I took them there.

However, I had a trick up my sleeve. We weren’t going to the library, because the door entering the playground was right next to the library. So, I took Lauren G to the swingsets instead.

The whole kicker of this story is that there were probably two other boys and eight girls that I lead on this excursion. This made a great ratio of boys to girl for our seven-year-old playground party.

You would think our teacher found us in less than 30 seconds, but no. We all screamed and played on that playground as if we escaped from Shawshank Prison for ten whole minutes.

I’d like to tell you that LG fell in love with me and we lived happily ever after but, I was the reason why all of those kids got grounded by their parents. Her parents told her to stay away from me because I was a trouble maker.

Now when I look back at it, I should have got her chocolates or flowers or something. But, I was like six so this was the best I could do.

 

Remember,

“The Zos Knows”

-David Zosel 

If you want to support my writing and for me to be able to create more content you can make a donation to either of these links:

 

Venmo or Patreon

Curious:

Did curiosity kill the cat? No, it enabled the cat to go places where you never thought it could go. With curiosity, new doors open, leading to us try new things. This is why we must keep moving forward after every bit of adversity we face in life. This mindset has led me down different routes such as film production, entrepreneurial ventures, and much more. But, there has always been one constant in my pursuit of curiosity: writing. Putting pen to paper keeps me curious, and now it has led me to my next frontier which is to be a great copywriter. Legendary explorers would have never found different continents without being curious about what was out there at the time if they were never curious. Then they came back home and advertised their discoveries, striking people’s interests in the new world. This is how I approach things with my curiosity. Without it, there would be no growth in the world. We’d still be living in caves, huddled over a fire, and drawing on walls. I want to grow as a writer, and become legendary like those historical explorers. The only way I can do that is to develop my curiosity.

 

Creative:

Anyone can be technical, or creative. But, not many can be both. I believe if you can be technical, and creative then you can be unstoppable. If you’re technical, you need to follow the guidelines. If you’re creative you can go above and beyond anything by drawing outside the lines of a coloring book. Once put together, you can go places that were not ever imaginable; like when the US went to the moon. Building rocket ships and space suits start with the creative imagination, and then the technical aspects of it all takes place to put it all together. Creativity and technicality are like a yin and yang, which is the fundamental basis for providing new solutions. The moment when I decided to be a writer, I knew that I had to learn both. I am proud to say that I am one of very few who pursues utilizing both skill sets. Most important, creativity helps you find solutions and technicality enables you to execute. This is advertising, an industry where it requires both in order to find solutions.

 

Courage:

Rocky Balboa once said, “It’s not how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” Being a writer takes audacity. We only have 26 letters to illustrate a big picture. We don’t have any colors, pallets or software to create art; just pen and paper. I’ve told myself after my struggles as an adult that I needed to write myself out of the adversity. This is why I don’t believe in writer’s block. The bravery it takes to put something on paper is insurmountable. There is the fear of no one reading your writing, hating it, or someone thinking that you are incompetent. I’m not afraid of any of that. I just write, and I have written in so many mediums that I call myself a kung fu writer.

If you want to know what courage is, then read the books I wrote. Writing about mental health, and becoming an advocate for this issue in today’s society takes courage because you are trying to change a stigma. I took a huge chance when I wrote these books, putting pieces of my soul out in the world. Writing is my lifeline, it’s my happy place. For me to be there I need to be writing, and writing takes courage. It is all I ever think about, and it is the only thing that I want to do.

Remember,

“The Zos Knows”

-David Zosel 

If you want to support my writing and for me to be able to create more content you can make a donation to either of these links:

 

Venmo or Patreon

Are you kidding me, Rick Spielman?

You continue to follow our franchise’s history of impulsive decisions. Not only is this impulsive, but it also doesn’t make tactical nor financial sense either. Although Bell is an elite running back in the NFL, he would serve as a significant distraction for our locker room. Bell does not fit the mold of what it means to be a Mike Zimmer Viking. Why? Because Le’Veon Bell is a Mexican restaurant, where you go to order sushi. It doesn’t make any sense.

Kirk Cousins already takes up 15% of our cap space, and not to mention we are already deep at running back. What message does this say to the team? Do we not have faith in Dalvin Cook? He is our guy, and his teammates and the fans stand by him. If Spielman would address our biggest flaw, offensive linemen, Dalvin Cook would easily be a perennial Pro Bowl running back. Le’veon Bell has always had a good line in front of him that suited his running style. Could he do the same for us? Time can only tell. But, if the issues of the offensive line would be fixed, we have a superior back in Dalvin Cook for less than one-third of the price. Again, this is a financial disaster regarding cap space.

Moreover, there is only one type of people that will stick their neck out for you in this world. That is called family. Dalvin Cook is family. Le’veon Bell wants something from us, and that is money. He doesn’t care about winning Super Bowls, he only cares about his payday. The only thing positive side of this move is it prevented the Detroit Lions from signing Bell. This move was impulsive and only made to prevent another Khalil Mack ripple effect for another divisional foe.

Way to go Rick… continue to add mercenaries to our locker room who will be sipping Mai Thai’s counting their cash on a Miami Beach during the offseason, rather than developing a true Viking culture.

If you happened to click on this article and read the whole thing, I just wanted to let you all know that this isn’t real at all. I wrote this article because I used this as a submission for a writing gig. I thought it was fun enough for me to post it on my blog. I hope you enjoyed my die-hard Vikings fandom.

Remember,

“The Zos Knows”

-David Zosel 

If you want to support my writing and for me to be able to create more content you can make a donation to either of these links:

 

Venmo or Patreon