Basic Trope: Negative advertising.
- Straight: Red Slime canned soups are advertised as "the worst brand of soup around".
- Exaggerated:
- Red Slime brand "Gooey Swamp Soup" is advertised as "unfit to serve even to demons from the deepest depths of death".
- The "ads" for Red Slime soups are just collections of complaints about the flavors, the real life working conditions needed to make them, former employees and critics endorsing better products in the ad space with little to no mention of Red Slime, uses for anything but consumption, and the advertisers themselves putting as little faith into promoting it as they can. They usually end with a plea to buy them because they don't want their products to be landfill material otherwise.
- Downplayed:
- Red Slime soups are advertised as "a poor choice for tasteful folk".
- Red Slime ads feature two characters: one who loves Red Slime soup, and one who hates it. They tell you to try it for yourself to see what the controversy is about.
- "If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You, and Red Slime tastes awful!"
- Red Slime's advertising makes light of a quirk even the brand's most loyal customers acknowledge ("it looks awful") before playing up what keeps the customers coming back ("it tastes great").
- Red Polish Laundry Detergent admits to not be the best for laundry, but also shows that its drab packaging is not attractive to babies either. note
- Justified:
- They are advertising for a society which perceives everything as sarcasm.
- They are a humble company who hates to boast.
- They want to create a lovable underdog image against market leader Amber Awesomesoup, which is infamous for its boastful in-your-face commercials.
- They want to create an image of sincerity - at least they aren't lying about how good they are.
- Inverted:
- Polish the Turd
- The ads for Red Slime canned soups try to portray their flaws as assets.
- Subverted:
- "Red Slime is the worst brand of canned soup on Earth." "...Is what fools might think."
- "Red Slime is the worst brand of canned soup... is what you'd say two months ago. We Don't Suck Anymore."
- Halfway through a negative Red Slime soup commercial, it's interrupted by a commercial for the actual product. Red Slime was just a Red Herring.
- Double Subverted: "It's actually the worst brand in the universe!"
- Parodied:
- Red Slime runs a traditional ad campaign and an "Our Product Sucks" campaign at the same time.
- Red Slime canned soups really are as awful as the negative ads say they are. Actually buying them is seen as falling for Schmuck Bait.
- Zig Zagged:
- Averted:
- Red Slime uses only traditional advertising.
- Red Slime does not advertise.
- Enforced: "We want to show how successful our fictional company is." "Let's have them claim that their product sucks! You know, negative advertising."
- Lampshaded: "Let's buy Red Slime soup. They say it's terrible, so it must be really good."
- Invoked: The company decides to use Reverse Psychology to advertise.
- Exploited: All other major soup companies create even worse ad campaigns to create the world's biggest Streisand Effect.
- Defied: An executive at Red Slime considers using Reverse Psychology to advertise, but decides against it because of the risk.
- Discussed: "Red Slime is the best soup you'll ever eat, you wouldn't hate it if we advertised it as bad!"
- Conversed: "Why are they saying 'Our Product Sucks'? Do they seriously think it'll somehow help their sales?"
- Deconstructed: People take the negative advertising seriously, and Red Slime experiences a decline in sales.
- Reconstructed: Potential customers are smart enough to figure out that the negative advertising is intended as Reverse Psychology.
Feel free to return to Our Product Sucks, but let me tell you, that page sucks!
