Brilliant Marketing Strategies - Part 1

I recently read a blog about the new Shreddies marketing campaign for "Squares vs Diamonds" and it got me thinking about other advertisements that I have seen over the years that appeared to be particularly brilliant to me. As I started to think back, I realized how these "brilliant" advertising campaigns really stuck in my mind and had an affect on me.

When I was younger, I always enjoyed the Buckley's cough syrup commercials and advertisements because I (at that time) had never perceived advertising as a particularly honest form of media. Yet, Buckley's was telling us (as their potential customers) that they have the worst tasting cough syrup. I don't think Buckley's could have done a better job of building up a relationship with consumers; by being so brutally honest about the awful taste of the syrup in their advertisements, they allowed the viewers to gain trust in them. So, when Buckley's uses the slogan "It tastes awful. And it works." The consumers believe that it will work because the company is so willing to admit that it tastes terrible, therefore the product's effectiveness must be worth the taste.
This campaign has proven to be effective, on Buckley's website they admit that "The bad taste campaign increased Buckley's market share over 10% in the Canadian cough & cold category and has won numerous advertising awards." (http://www.buckleys.com/about/history.htm) This comes as no surprise to me; Buckley's created an image for themselves that said "Hey, we aren't going to sugar-coat anything. This is going to suck, but you'll be glad you did it."
I think it's safe to say that when you're sick and you're coughing up a lung, you want something that is going to WORK. This is why Buckley's appeals so much to consumers, they know it will work even before trying the product just because of the way Buckley's advertises so honestly.

I personally think that this was a great strategy, and it really allowed consumers to embrace Buckley's as a household name, I doubt that the company would have had as much success without the use of the bad taste campaign.

I'd like to know what others think about this campaign, and if you agree with the idea that the campaign is more or less the backbone of Buckley's tremendous success.