Don’t Snort Death Dust, Says Ozzy Osbourne in Liquid Death Ad

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.

Along with discouraging misuse of the product, the Ozzy warning ad aims to serve as a reminder that Death Dust is “way tastier when you mix it with water and drink it,” Pearson said.

Cautionary tale

It also gave the swagger-filled brand an opportunity to work with Osbourne for the first time in a campaign, although Liquid Death sponsors The Osbournes Podcast, where its waters and teas often make cameo appearances.

“We’ve wanted to do something bigger with him for a while, and this felt like a natural fit,” said Pearson, noting that Ozzy is “an expert in this space—Google ‘Ozzy and ants.’”

For those who don’t understand the reference, Osbourne allegedly (legendarily) snorted a line of ants during a drug-fueled bender decades ago. There’s an ongoing debate around the incident, as often happens with tales of rock ’n’ roll’s debauched history. 

The topic came up on The Osbournes Podcast last fall, with son Jack asking his father to confirm or deny.

Ozzy swore he actually did snort a line of ants while on tour with Mötley Crüe in the 1980s. His wife, Sharon, couldn’t back up the story because she said she smartly stayed away from that particular combustible combo of out-of-control musicians.

But the 2019 Crüe biopic called Dirt captures Ozzy as he appears to be snorting ants, Sharon Osbourne said on the podcast. (Ozzy’s guitarist at the time, Jake E. Lee, has said publicly that it was a small spider, not a line of ants, but Ozzy protests.)

“I did, I was there, I did it,” Ozzy said during the October podcast. “It’s my nostril … I was drunk, and I did it.”

Liquid Death’s campaign is the latest brand collaboration from Osbourne, who starred in a popular Workday Super Bowl spot in 2023 and has worked with Samsung, Best Buy and Sony PlayStation, among others.