Taste the Thunder

Read the campaign story

Thums Up’s Taste the Thunder platform connected a forceful taste identity with action-led imagery. A reported history places its emergence in the 1980s without establishing an exact year. A 2026 music execution by WPP Ogilvy and Universal Music Group extended that territory. Thunder, toofani and related platform expressions are grouped rather than counted as separate campaigns.

Editorial interpretation: the metaphor gives an invisible sensation a visual and verbal character that can survive changes of talent and medium. It also creates a difficult boundary. A product association with boldness can easily become a suggestion that consumption provides courage or that risky conduct proves identity. The useful adaptation is not to reproduce escalating stunts. It is to identify a recognisable expressive rule and show how that rule can remain distinctive through safe, clearly fictional creative choices.

The study does not endorse daring behaviour, stimulant effects, strength, health benefits or campaign-attributable business growth. The exact original year remains null rather than converting a decade into a date. No music, lyrics, stunts or celebrity likenesses are reproduced. The proposed test uses static abstract graphics for a fictional nonfood service, with no physical challenge, consumption, public participation or pressure to prove bravery.

Translate the metaphor into an identifiable creative rule

A metaphor can be broad enough to accommodate many executions while becoming too vague to guide any of them. Specify the choices that make it recognisable: a particular contrast, rhythm, point of view or transition. A small design studio could define a visual rule for an energetic event announcement and test whether it survives without the slogan. The goal is not to imitate another brand’s assets but to understand how coherence works. If only a famous face or a dramatic action connects the pieces, the platform may depend on borrowed attention rather than an organising idea the organisation can sustain responsibly.

Decouple intensity from dangerous conduct

A communication can feel energetic through editing, composition or language without asking anyone to take a risk. In a new adaptation, choose a harmless action and review whether the framing makes declining it seem weak. A small team should avoid competitions in which participants escalate behaviour to receive recognition. Test the meaning viewers infer, not merely whether they feel excited. If the message suggests that courage requires ignoring judgement or that a purchase changes personal capability, revise it. A strong creative identity can leave room for caution, different temperaments and ordinary participation without losing its distinctiveness or becoming a dare.

Distinguish platform continuity from a new proof claim

A familiar slogan can make a later execution feel established even when its specific claim is new. Review each asset on its own and then examine the cumulative impression. A small brand can preserve tone while changing format, but should not assume that recognition validates every implication carried by the new medium. Music, sport and celebrity associations may introduce meanings absent from an earlier product story. Ask viewers what they believe the sponsor now promises and whether any of those beliefs require evidence the organisation lacks. Continuity should help people recognise the communication, not grant unearned credibility to additional performance or identity claims.

A bounded test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: a community design workshop could compare two original static invitations for a fictional poster-making session. One uses an energetic abstract visual system; the other uses a restrained layout. Both describe the same optional indoor activity, time requirement and observation-only route. Ask consenting adults what kind of participation they expect and whether either invitation implies pressure to compete or demonstrate confidence. Use no music, celebrity references, beverage imagery or real registration. This tests whether intensity can remain a stylistic cue without becoming a behavioural demand, not whether a campaign produces courage, energy or a desirable social identity.

Measure accurate activity expectations, recognition of optional participation and unsupported capability inferences. Separate visual excitement from suitability, safety, physical energy or likely attendance. Give caution and disinterest equal legitimacy in the review.

Stop if intensity becomes a dare, refusal is framed as weakness, a product appears to confer courage or the idea relies on unsafe imitation.