Liquid Death 2024 campaign teardown: stunts as free media, with thin independent proof of results

Bottom line

Liquid Death's 2024 marketing was a run of stunts and collaborations built to earn attention instead of buying it. Its VP of creative says the brand does not really buy media, relatively speaking. The strongest move was the "Biggest Ad Ever" auction, which sold ad space on shipping cases for $500,114, turning the brand's own packaging into a revenue line and a Super Bowl-season talking point. The lesson most worth copying is to treat a creative idea as a product that people pay for with attention, and to give it a mechanic (an auction, a sweepstakes, a limited drop) that gives press a hook. Scope assumptions: I read "2024 campaigns" as Liquid Death Mountain Water's US-led campaigns from January to December 2024. Evidence is mostly press and brand pages. I could not access the ad libraries (see Gaps), so nothing here proves paid reach or ad run length.

Campaign inventory

Ad Age headlines for a jet spot, "misfortune cookies" and the Death Dust and Pure Sugar pieces appeared in search, but the article bodies would not load, so I do not describe them.

Messaging

• Anti-category humor. The Pure Sugar brief was to make something that shakes people awake about soda marketing, citing the "Truth" anti-tobacco work as a reference. Stack3d reports the fake soda carried the tagline "All Sugar. No Water".
• Health framed as fun. The brand's boilerplate says it is the first beverage company using comedy and entertainment to make health and sustainability 50 times more fun. This is the brand's own claim.
• Mock-serious copy. The jet page asks "Is this a joke?" and answers "This is 100% real. You won't have to take us to court to get a jet." CNBC says this refers to Pepsi's 1990s jet giveaway.
• Deadpan safety warning. Ozzy Osbourne says "don't snort or inject anything they make. It's much better for drinking." The video answered Instagram comments joking about snorting the powder.
• Anti-ad-buying stance. Pearson says the brand wants to be the best thing someone sees that day and does not want to keep interrupting viewers. On the Super Bowl he says he thinks it is pretty boring.

Creative patterns

• Real-person pranks. Pure Sugar used actors and models who were told it was a French soda company launching in the US, plus a PTZ camera to give security-camera footage. The same piece says the brand had run earlier social experiments such as a blind taste test.
• Celebrity and partner cameos. Ozzy Osbourne for Death Dust. e.l.f. and Van Leeuwen for product collabs. Van Leeuwen's own past flavors included Hidden Valley Ranch and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, so the partner already did gag collabs.
• In-house production. The Van Leeuwen campaign was developed by Death Machine, Liquid Death's in-house creative studio.
• Packaging as media. The auction sold space on 500,000 of the brand's packages, and Adweek says the packages would be on shelves from October through the holidays.
• Variant counts. Not measurable without ad library access.

Offers and landing pages

The jet page I fetched is the live 2026 version, still showing the 2024 rules. The current liquiddeath.com/pages/biggame page is a 2026 energy-drink page, so I did not use it as a 2024 offer.

Reach and response

• Auction result. Coinbase won at $500,114. Dude Wipes set an early max bid of $222,222 and Dan-O's Seasoning bid $223,000 after launching its own "Smallest Ad Ever" auction. MediaPost also reports Coca-Cola's Smartwater bought a banner on the eBay listing. The "200 million shoppers" reach claim is Liquid Death's own, not independently verified.
• Jet. More than 30,000 entries per Stack3d. Stack3d says the winner appeared to take the jet over the cash option.
• Brand scale. Liquid Death reported $263 million in retail scanned sales in 2023, 113,000 retail doors in the US and UK, and 7.9 million followers across TikTok and Instagram (company release, March 2024, before most campaigns above). It closed $67 million at a $1.4 billion valuation.
• Press reaction. The Guardian credits clever marketing for the valuation, while a Kantar analyst warned the brand needs to avoid becoming a short-lived fad. Pearson says people really reacted to it pretty strongly (a company view).
• Awards. A Lovethework (Cannes Lions) entry titled "Biggest Ad Ever" surfaced in search, but the page failed to load, so I cannot say what it won, if anything.
• Regulatory. I did not complete checks of the UK ASA rulings, FTC or NAD databases. A 2026 Food Dive headline reports Liquid Death facing a zero-sugar label class action (headline only, 2026, outside the 2024 scope).

What seemed to work, and what did not

• Worked (evidence): the auction got a named buyer, a six-figure price and trade press. The jet drew 30,000+ entries.
• Worked (inference): purchase-linked entry mechanics tie a stunt to in-store sales, because every entry required a physical-store receipt. No sales lift figure was found.
• Worked (company claim): Pearson says people really reacted to Pure Sugar pretty strongly.
• Unclear: whether any stunt moved sales. The Kantar caution suggests attitude alone may not sustain growth.
• Did not (data gap): no negative campaign outcome was found, which more likely reflects press-heavy sourcing than a clean record.

Lessons for marketers

1. Sell the stunt's inventory. Turning owned packaging into an auctioned ad slot made the brand a media seller and made buyers part of the story.
2. Attach a purchase mechanic to a gag. The jet sweepstakes required in-store receipts and rewarded more cans with more entries.
3. Pick partners with a shared joke. e.l.f. and Van Leeuwen each had a record of unusual collabs, so the pairing explained itself.
4. Answer your own comments. The Ozzy video turned Instagram snorting jokes into the concept.
5. Dramatize the category, not just the product. Pure Sugar targeted soda marketing and let viewers see sugar quantities.
6. Measure what the stunt was for. Entries and press are easy to count; publish or track sales and brand lift too.

Gaps and caveats

• Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center, TikTok and LinkedIn libraries were not queried successfully, so ad counts, run lengths and regional reach are unknown. The absence of data does not mean no ads ran.
• Ad Age article bodies returned only page chrome. Marketing Week was paywalled. Its opening cited a different valuation than the Business Wire $1.4 billion figure, so I used Business Wire.
• Lovethework award page failed to load. No Effie or Cannes result confirmed.
• No view counts, Google Trends, Reddit sentiment, or ASA, FTC and NAD results were gathered.
• Many figures come from company statements or trade press, not independent measurement.

Sources

Accessed 5 Oct 2026; publication dates in parentheses.

• Business Wire: Liquid Death $67 million financing (March 2024)
• Adweek: Liquid Death tries to dethrone the Super Bowl (Feb 2024)
• MediaPost: Coinbase wins Liquid Death auction (22 Feb 2024)
• Business Wire: e.l.f. and Liquid Death Corpse Paint (26 Mar 2024)
• Muse by Clios: Pure Sugar by Andy Pearson (7 May 2024)
• Stack3d: Pure Sugar video (May 2024)
• CNBC: Liquid Death jet giveaway (21 May 2024)
• Liquid Death: Win a Jet page
• Stack3d: jet winner (Oct 2024)
• Blabbermouth: Ozzy Osbourne and Death Dust (25 Jun 2024)
• The Drum: Van Leeuwen collaboration (13 Aug 2024)
• Retail Dive: Andy Pearson interview (6 Aug 2024)
• Guardian: Liquid Death and gen Z (28 May 2024)
• Food Dive: zero-sugar class actions (31 Aug 2026, headline only)