March 24. Popular Instagram account DudeWithSign holds up a sign reading, “stop posting your home workouts”.

Beachbody is a home workout company.

48 hours later, their CEO, Carl Daikeler, responds with his own sign reading, “keep posting your home workouts (you’re inspiring people)”.

Carl then rallies his followers to hold up their own signs on Saturday:

Saturday comes round. Thousands join in with Carl’s protest. And Beachbody gets a load of free publicity:

Why does it work?

The secret ingredient is conflict.

Without DudeWithSign, Carl’s campaign is a movie with just the good guy. There’s no story. No one cares about shiny happy people.

Opposing forces create energy. And Carl leverages that.

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