08/24/2025
🚗 VW called their car ugly.
2️⃣ Avis bragged about being #2.
🍗 KFC admitted they FCKed Up.
These marketing campaigns are some of the most famous and effective in history.
Here’s the counterintuitive psychology behind why admitting your flaws and mistakes can make you more money.
In 1966, psychologist Elliot Aronson ran an experiment that made a genuinely surprising discovery.
He gathered 48 college men and played them recordings of 2 different people answering quiz questions.
1️⃣ Person A: Answered 92% correctly. They were an honor student, yearbook editor and track team member.
2️⃣ Person B: Answered only 30% correctly. They had average grades and tried out for track but didn’t make it.
Then he added a twist: In some versions, the person “accidentally” spilled coffee.
The results were fascinating:
✅ Superior person + coffee spill = MOST likable
👎 Superior person without spill = Less likable
❌ Average person + coffee spill = LEAST likable
The mistake made the competent person MORE attractive, not less.
This is the pratfall effect at work.
It turns out that small flaws can actually be a positive.
Here’s the psychology at play:
Superior people and brands seem “superhuman” and distant (we can’t relate to them).
But a small mistake makes them human again.
There is a catch though…
This only works if you’re ALREADY seen as competent.
If you’re average and make a mistake, people just think you’re incompetent.
Volkswagen used this principle to create some of the most famous and effective ads of all time.
In 1959, Americans wanted big, flashy cars.
This was a problem for VW because their Beetle was:
❌ Small (Americans loved big)
❌ Ugly (looked weird)
❌ German (recent enemy)
So VW created ads saying “Think Small” and “It’s ugly but it gets you there.”
Ad Age ranked it the #1 ad of the 20th century.
Avis was getting crushed by Hertz in the car rental game.
In 1962, Hertz had 61% market share while Avis had just 29%.
Instead of pretending to be #1 Avis said “When you’re only No. 2, you try harder. Or else.”
Within one year of launching this brilliant marketing campaign:
📈 Avis went from losing $3.2M/year to earning $1.2M/year.
📈 Market share grew from 29% to 36%.
In 2018, KFC UK ran out of chicken and 600 restaurants closed.
Customers were so furious that Police had to put out public statements telling the public it wasn’t a police matter.
KFC responded with a genius full-page ad with their iconic bucket rearranged to spell “FCK.”
“We’re sorry. A chicken restaurant without any chicken. It’s not ideal.”
The ad went massively viral.
It went on to win multiple awards and turned a crisis into deeper brand loyalty.
Northwestern University studied this with product reviews and made another valuable discovery.
They found that products with perfect 5 star reviews have a lower conversion rate than those with close to perfect ratings.
The sweet spot for having the highest purchase probability is actually 4.2-4.5 star ratings.
Perfect ratings trigger our “too good to be true” detector and seem fake.
82% of consumers actively seek out negative reviews to verify authenticity.
Here’s how you can use the pratfall effect in your ads:
1. Ensure you have already established some level of competence FIRST.
2. Find a genuine minor weakness.
3. Own it with confidence, not shame, and work it into your next ad or marketing campaign.
4. Show how the “flaw” actually serves customers.
5. Never fake it (authenticity can’t be manufactured).
Remember: This backfires if you’re not already credible.
