Netflix is a joke

Why Netflix understands what 98% of the advertising industry ignores or forgets.

Miguel Ferreira
3 min readOct 9, 2018

The Crown, House of Cards, Stranger Things. Netflix is known for its original dramas.

But Netflix wanted to own a new category.

Then, out of nowhere mysterious “Netflix is a joke” billboards popped up in busy neighborhoods in Los Angeles and New York.

Photo via Ads Of The World

People started talking about these mysterious black and white billboards.

“Is it some sort of prank?” some asked.

“Is it a competitor’s smear campaign?” fans speculated online.

The media picked it up. “What is happening?”, “Who would do this to Netflix?”

The answer? Netflix.

Turns out it was a provocative ad campaign for their new Netflix Comedy specials. Overnight the ads transformed from black and white insults to playful character statements.

Photo via D&AD

Result? The campaign got global press coverage. Millions and millions of dollars worth of free media coverage.

So what’s the lesson here?

Netflix understands what 98% of Adland ignores or forgets. That the first job of advertising is not to be liked but to work. And advertising that works is advertising that gets seen and noticed.

Or as Dave Trott says: “What gets action is what gets attention. What gets attention is what gets seen.”

Miguel Ferreira

🚀 Founder & Chief Copywriter: teardwn.com
💌 Newsletter: creativesamba.substack.com
🏂 Side projects: 💡 heynishi.com + ✍️ copyipsum.com + 🎧 chillmusic.club + 📻 Chill Music Club FM

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed reading this story, you’ll also enjoy reading my newsletter. It’s called Creative Samba and every week I share stories like this. Always packed with actionable insights about copywriting, marketing and how the human mind works.

Who is this guy anyway?

Miguel Ferreira and his out of the ordinary Web Copywriting Agency, Teardwn, are obsessed with one thing only. To help Indie Startups & Small Businesses find their voice and use copywriting as their legal unfair competitive advantage to GROW & COMPETE with the Big Guys.

Nice things his clients have said…

“Miguel was the key for us to level-up our marketing. Previously we had only been iterating on our same tired messaging. I was impressed with how little work it took on our part to get a comprehensive review from Miguel. Then, making the changes was as simple as copy-and-pasting, and we saw a categorical improvement we would have never got to with our A/B testing. I’ve since then recommended Miguel to many of my similarly-minded friends who tend to focus on the mechanics of a feature rather than the emotionally resonant messaging that actually sells it!”

— Maia Bittner, Co-Founder of Pinch

“Miguel (Teardwn) provided copywriting for our marketing landing page. This was instrumental in setting the tone and path forward for all marketing materials, communication, and branding. Prior to this, we had struggled and never came up with something consistent. Miguel provided clarity within a couple of weeks. He was easy to work with, fast, and collaborative. I am looking forward to working with Teardwn again and again!”

— Mimi Chan, Founder & CEO of Littlefund

“Creating a brand from scratch was incredibly overwhelming for us. We knew we needed help with copywriting, but we were afraid that someone from the outside might not ‘get us’. However, Miguel was incredibly quick in understanding our tone of voice, our jokes and what we wanted to communicate. Resulting in a webpage that is simple but still funky!”

— Leticia Horvath, Co-Founder of The Green Conspiracy

Working with me = copy that stands out = (more time to run your business + back to making more cha-ching). Say hi: miguel@teardwn.com

--

--