How B&Q breathed new life into its "You Can Do It" slogan

DIY and home improvement retailer B&Q have put their famous, 40-year-old line"You Can Do It" slogan right back at the centre of their brand, with a new campaign that launched on February 24th, 2024.

And it's a doozy.

The spot opens on a woman squaring up to a wall bearing a sledgehammer. A voice of doubt stops her in her tracks, saying, “You can’t.”

The ad flicks through the excuses people make up to put off doing any DIY projects. “It’s too big” as a man sits defeated on the ground as the room expands away from him. “It’s too small” as a woman looks at a tiny screw at the end of her finger. "Maybe after one more cup of tea" as a tower of teacups spills over.

Finally, we return to the first woman with the sledgehammer. She ignores that voice of doubt, before issuing a war-cry as she hammers through the wall. We see all the other characters crack on with their DIY, both getting stuck in and looking satisfied once the job has been done.

The ad ends with the line: “You can do it... if you B&Q it.”

So what went into the ad?

👀 Change the perspective

This ad could have been a 'cost of living ad'. B&Q marketing director commented:

"It’s been hard, and everyone is feeling the pinch. Everything can feel heavy. But there are things you can do to improve your home that don’t cost much and aren’t that hard. And will fundamentally change your life."

But the ad isn't about how doing some DIY is a cheap way to upgrade your home life. It isn't about how going out is expensive, or how the best way to spend your time and money is on your home.

B&Q clearly understand the context that they're meeting their audience in - but they aren't piling on. This ad is about the reasons why people don't do DIY. It is not a petition explaining all the reasons why you should do DIY. It avoids the easy route of openly talking about value and price and savings in a cost-of-living crisis. It takes the far more challenging but far more entertaining route of making the DIY category exciting.

Without getting too snobby, it's actual advertising, rather than "inflation-washing" - a term I just made up to cover all the campaigns that try to promise good value just because people are struggling with their finances.

🛀 Keep things fresh

"You can do it" has a place in the hearts and minds of most of Britain. Everyone remembers the old sing-song B&Q ads featuring the slogan. It's so well-embedded, that 90% of the British public recognise it. That's up there with the most famous of brand assets, and B&Q saw that they needed to keep using it.

But they brought something new this time.

This time, the thrust behind the slogan wasn't to drive recall. The old jingles have already done that. It was to give that famous old slogan some refreshed meaning. "You can do it" isn't a positive affirmation of the DIY mindset. In this campaign, "You can do it" is a middle-finger to the voice of doubt. It's somehow bigger than just DIY. One line from the ad says it best:

"The voice [of doubt] is loud. But guess what? A sledgehammer is louder."

🖼️ Craft, craft, craft

Besides all of that strategic thinking, the ad is a beautiful thing. It's exciting and energetic and real.

This is what Nils Leonard, founder at Uncommon Creative Studios, had to say about the film:

“We wanted to make something that wasn’t just three or four vignettes. We needed a film that could translate all the reasons we lie to ourselves about why we don’t do that thing. It’s got humour and wit. There’s intelligence in the image-making... the way the shadow walks off before the guy. It’s bordering on cinema talent. Real old-school, artistic filmmaking.”

I think that says it all.

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