Pick the Fight the Internet Already Wants

Here's a shortcut most brands miss. Before you plan your next campaign, spend an hour on Twitter, Reddit, and TikTok comment sections. You're looking for fights your audience is already having.

Coke vs. Pepsi. iPhone vs. Android. New York pizza vs. Chicago pizza. DoorDash vs. Uber Eats. Air Jordan vs. Air Max. Tesla vs. Ford. Your category has at least five of these arguments happening every day, for free, without your brand's participation.

You can participate. You just have to stop trying to start fights and start showing up to existing ones.

The distinction

There are two kinds of brand rivalry content:

Manufactured rivalry. You invent a fight. Your brand vs. a different brand, with stakes you define and a story you construct.

Rented rivalry. You show up to a fight your audience is already having. You didn't invent it. You're taking a side in an ongoing debate.

Both can work. Rented is much easier. The audience is already warmed up — they have opinions, they've been arguing for years, and you're just giving them an ad that reflects their pre-existing views.

The research

Spend a morning doing this:

1. Open Twitter, search for your brand and your top three competitors. Read the replies and quote-tweets.
2. Open Reddit, find the subreddit for your category. Search for threads where people compare options. Read which arguments come up most.
3. Open TikTok, search for your category. Watch the top 20 videos. Read the comments.

You'll identify 3-5 recurring arguments about your category. These are the fights your audience is having. These are your rental opportunities.

The play

Once you've identified a rental opportunity, make content that takes the side your brand is on in that argument. Don't invent new arguments. Use the existing frame.

Example: if your category is pizza and the most common argument is "New York vs. Chicago style," your brand should pick a side and run with it. Your ads should reference the existing vocabulary — "thin crust forever," "deep dish is a casserole" — rather than inventing new terminology.

The audience recognizes the argument. They already have an emotional stake. Your content slots into a position they've been defending for years.

The risk

When you rent a fight, you're taking on the ongoing nature of the fight. People on the opposite side of the argument will dislike your ad. Loudly.

This is correct. A rented fight has 50/50 audience split. You're signing up to alienate half the room in exchange for the strong loyalty of the other half.

For most brands, this trade is worth it. Weak affinity across 100% of an audience is worse than strong affinity across 50%. Strong affinity drives purchase; weak doesn't.

The counterexample

Brands that try to stay neutral on category arguments — "we're for everyone, we don't take sides" — usually end up unmemorable. They're the pizza that claims to be "both New York and Chicago style," which nobody orders because nobody knows what it is.

Pick a side. Commit. Accept that you're alienating half the market. The other half becomes your core.

The long-term play

Rented rivalries compound over time. Each ad you make reinforces your side in the argument. After a year of consistent side-taking, you're the brand for that side. You've earned the position that the audience was already willing to give you.

Flip sides or try to appeal to both, and you reset the clock. Audiences have long memories for brands that pandered to them.

The takeaway

Don't invent rivalries. Rent them. Find what your audience is already arguing about, pick a side, and commit. The argument does most of the work for you — your job is just to show up with a clear position and a strong mascot.

Rented fights are the best free advertising on the internet. Every category has them. Most brands ignore them. Don't.