Holiday family dinners are sometimes more awkward than enjoyable. Your opinionated uncle, messy aunt and tech bro cousin can all be major embarrassments.
Q Mixers puts some of the most awkward family moments on display in a new campaign, “Q It Up,” from Cornett, but promotes its mixers as a way to at least make those moments somewhat bearable.
A series of ads, titled “Dinner with the Unfixables,” feature those stereotypical cringe characters. In “Hot Mess Aunt,” a family dinner centers on a young woman’s aunt, who is creepily caressing her bloody mary.
In another, a crackpot uncle spews his crazy theories.
At the same dinner, a cousin has his VR headset at the table and appears to be making out with a virtual girlfriend. Ew.
All the spots end with the woman cracking open a Q Mixer as text states “we can’t fix your (hot mess aunt, tech-bro cousin, crackpot uncle, step-grandma), but we can fix your cocktail.”
“Existential dread, unhinged family members, inflation, logjam traffic, impending robot overlords…they’re not really in Q Mixers’ lane to fix. But easy, quality cocktails? They’re really, really good at that,” said Jason Majewski, creative director at Cornett in a statement. “So we just leaned into that simple idea and had a lot of fun with it.”
OOH Problems & a solution
The campaign from Cornett, a Lexington, Kentucky agency that won the business after a competitive pitch last spring, has an outdoor element that’s less family related and more about everyday problems.
With significant OOH placements in San Francisco, Chicago, and Denver—plus three popular Colorado ski resorts—the “Q It Up” campaign takes aim at market-specific annoyances with bold headlines and polished photography.
“We can’t fix these nightmare intersections,” says a wallscape at one of Chicago’s notoriously chaotic six-way junctions, “but we can fix your cocktail.”
Q Mixers Chicago OOH placement.
A Denver placement reads, “We can’t fix the incoming gaggle of Jerrys but we can fix your cocktail,” a reference to the onslaught of clueless skiers during the winter months.
Q Mixers out of home post in Denver.
Similar digital ads will run on social media throughout the roughly three-month campaign.
“The ‘Q It Up’ campaign showcases our ethos—we take good drinks and moments that matter seriously, but never ourselves,” said Jocelyn Hurley, brand marketing director at Q Mixers in a statement. “Also, it helps crystallize the benefit of Q Mixers in a relatable way. And lastly, like Q, the campaign is endlessly riffable. It can apply to so many occasions. The Cornett team really nailed it.”