Taking advice from the “Prince of Darkness” could be either the best or worst decision ever—but for a new Liquid Death campaign, Ozzy Osbourne preaches the kind of restraint he was never known for during the heyday of his career.
Hyping the brand’s latest product, called Death Dust, Osbourne rolls up in a luxury car and lectures a couple of loitering teenagers about incorrect use of the powdered electrolyte mix.
“Don’t snort that stuff,” Osbourne says from the back seat of his chauffeured SUV. “Whatever you do, don’t try freebasing it.”
The youngsters are thrilled at the random celebrity sighting but confused about Osbourne’s words of wisdom, which not-so-subtly fall under the heading, “Do as I say and not as I’ve done.”
Even though the high-schoolers are hanging out in a graffiti-covered parking lot making furtive movements with Death Dust—the spot’s soundtrack gives a suspicious-activity vibe—they say they intend only to dump it into water to hydrate themselves. There’s nothing sketchy going on, they promise the rocker.
Osbourne, undaunted, continues his rant: “Never ever inject it, and don’t even think about boofing it, you little perverts.”
Confusion ensues. Ozzy explains. Bleeping happens.
Better way to hydrate
The ad comes from Liquid Death’s in-house creative and marketing team as a cheeky way to boost the nascent line extension and its newly tweaked flavors. Death Dust initially launched in February in a three-flavor multipack on Amazon; it’s now available additionally in single-flavor packs of Severed Lime, Mango Chainsaw and Convicted Melon.
As a coda to the debut ad—a horror-comedy mashup starring thirsty zombies—the brand issued the following warning: “Please do not attempt to snort Death Dust.”
Liquid Death returned to that well as inspiration for a second ad because of reaction on social channels, according to Andy Pearson, the brand’s vice president of creative.
“We saw tons of comments by people saying they’d snort whatever they like,” Pearson told ADWEEK. “As we often do, we look for things that pop naturally on social and then turn that into new ideas.”
One of Liquid Death’s most successful ads to date—a regional spot for Super Bowl 2022—came about because fans often posted pseudo-subversive pictures of children drinking the brand on social.