There's always a new way of telling an old story.
KitKat has spent the last seventy years repeating one big idea. The same idea: “Have a break, have a KitKat”
It’s one of advertising’s longest-running, most iconic taglines, dating back to 1957.
Which is a paradox.
If you repeat the same old idea for decades, it risks sounding tired. But if you abandon it, you abandon the equity.
Contrary to popular belief, in cases like this the job of a good copywriter isn’t to invent a new big idea. It’s to find a new doorway into the same big idea.
That’s the strategic brilliance behind KitKat’s new campaign created by Courage.
KitKat has always been about celebrating the importance of taking a break. So instead of shouting something entirely new, KitKat’s agency, Courage, dug deeper and discovered something interesting.
It turns out the world is already full of break-shaped moments.
For example, look at how we write time, journeys and sequences:
9–5
YYZ–JFK
Ep.8–Ep.9
So as you can see, that tiny dash is everywhere. And what does a dash mean?
It marks a pause. It marks a space between two things.
Which, if you think about it, is exactly what KitKat has always stood for.
So the campaign simply replaces that dash with a KitKat finger.
And suddenly the symbol people ignore all day becomes a visual cue for a break.
Instead of running away from KitKat’s old identity, KitKat reimagined its iconic “Have a break, have a KitKat” line for the doomscrolling era.
And instead of interrupting culture, KitKat hijacked punctuation. Simply by replacing phones with KitKat in everyday moments.
“There’s always a fresh way to tell an old, old story”.
This is one of Mary Wear’s copywriting rules (Mary Wear is the copywriter behind the famous line Make Poverty History). I’m sure Mary Wear would approve KitKat’s new way of telling an old story.
㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡㋡
》Dangerous Ideas:
1/ “There’s always a fresh way to tell an old, old story”. -Mary Wear
2/To sell something old, make it feel new.
Because “new” activates our brain’s reward center.
3/ “Not all attention is created equal”. - Samuel Brealey
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Your pal,
🚀 Founder Teardwn | Fractional Copy Chief for DTC and eCommerce startups
💌 Newsletter: Creative Samba
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