The Case for Fluffin’ Cursing in Ads

If I told you using curse words in your copy could lead to better performance, would you do it? Two recent stats from an article by former Brandweek EIC Tom Wasserman make the case for it:

• “A paper co-written by [San Diego State University psychologist Jean M.] Twenge found books written between 2005 and 2008 were 28 times more likely to include swear words than books published in the early 1950s,” Wasserman wrote for Adweek.
• Additionally, “A recent study by Twenge indicates that the growth in the usage of such words reflects not more vulgar manners, but increased individualism and free expression,” Wasserman continued.

TL;DR: Swearing has become fluffing popular in modern language and could invoke a free-spirited tone rather than an offensive one...so why not sprinkle some bad words into your copy?

+1: You might not actually have to use a four letter word to get some of the effect. Take Jell-O’s “Fun My Life,” Kraft’s “Get Your Chef Together,” and Booking.com’s “You Booking Did It,” for instance.

My takeaway: There are obvious exceptions to this rule (maybe don’t go all sailor talk on the Pampers’ diaper box copy). But if ad copy is supposed to be an authentic representation of the way people talk, and if your product calls for a hint of individualism, is saying “Fun my life” really so bad?