Primary Focus: Radical Agreement, Group Mind, and Rapid Idea Generation.
Game Overview
The Ad Game is an advanced, high-energy group exercise based on the mechanics of “Yes, Let’s.” The ensemble works collaboratively to pitch, build, and flesh out an entire multi-media advertising campaign for a completely fictional, nonsensical, or unknown product. The core objective is for the team to build a massive, complex idea at lightning speed by treating every single suggestion as absolute genius.
Setup
- Players: Full ensemble (6–15 players).
- Materials: None.
- The Ask: A made-up name for a product, or a bizarre combination of two unrelated objects (e.g., “Dehydrated Water” or “The Solar-Powered Umbrella”).
How to Play
- The Product Pitch: The group stands in a loose semi-circle. A player steps forward and pitches the baseline product name or concept to the group.
- The “Yes, And” Engine: Any player can shout out an immediate, collaborative addition to the campaign—such as a tagline, a commercial script detail, a celebrity spokesperson, a billboard concept, or a specific marketing gimmick.
- The Group Affirmation: The moment an idea is pitched, the entire group must enthusiastically shout, “Yes! And…” or “Yes, let’s!”, instantly adopting the offer into the campaign’s canon.
- The Layering Effect: Players continually step forward to layer more specific, wilder details on top of the previous offers, treating the campaign like a runaway train of corporate enthusiasm until the product feels completely realized.
Execution Notes
- Zero Judgment: There are no bad ideas in marketing meetings. The game dies if a player hesitates, tries to correct a teammate’s pitch, or offers a “realistic” marketing pivot.
- Match the Energy: The comedy comes from treating completely useless, ridiculous inventions with the hyper-intense, aggressive enthusiasm of a high-stakes Silicon Valley tech launch.
- Build Vertically: Don’t just list random things about the product. Build on top of what was just said. If someone says, “Our spokesperson is a talking raccoon,” the next line shouldn’t be about the price; it should be, “Yes! And the raccoon wears a tiny tuxedo and hates our competitor!”
Technical Variations
| Variation | Description |
| The Pitch Deck | Players stand in front of the room and mime a PowerPoint presentation. The group provides the slide content, and the presenters must immediately justify the blank “visuals” they are pointing to. |
| The Boardroom Crisis | Halfway through a successful campaign build, the facilitator shouts “PR Crisis!” The group must pivot immediately to spin a bizarre defect or scandal into a positive marketing feature using the same “Yes, And” mechanics. |
| The Commercial Shoot | Once the verbal pitch is established, the facilitator calls out “Action!”, and a subgroup must instantly jump into the space and physically act out the live-action television commercial they just invented. |
