Dru coined 'disruption' in advertising long before Silicon Valley made it a buzzword. His definition is precise: disruption is the strategic break from category convention that allows a brand to occupy a new, more powerful position in the consumer's mind.

It is not provocation for its own sake. Not shock. Not weirdness. It is a calculated break with the inherited rules of a category — made in service of a clear brand vision. Without the vision, it's just noise.

Dru's methodology is deceptively simple:

1. 1.Convention** — Map every rule the category follows: the visual codes, the messaging territory, the tone, the media. Make them explicit. Most marketers follow conventions they've never consciously identified.

1. 1.Disruption** — Find the convention that most contradicts where consumer culture is heading. Break it. Deliberately, strategically, with full understanding of what you're abandoning.

1. 1.Vision** — The disruption must serve a brand vision larger than any single campaign. Apple didn't just break the 'specs and logic' convention — it was building toward 'technology as self-expression.' Every piece of the vision must cohere.

Without all three steps, you have either a conventional campaign (no disruption) or a stunt (no vision).

Every computer brand in 1983 communicated through the same conventions: technical specifications, productivity gains, business applications, rational proof points. IBM was the dominant convention-setter.

Apple's disruption was total: abandon specifications entirely, communicate through pure emotion and identity — rebellion, individuality, freedom. The '1984' ad didn't mention a single feature. It depicted a vision of humanity refusing conformity.

The convention broken: computers are tools you evaluate rationally. The disruption: computers are identity statements you respond to emotionally. The vision: Apple as the brand for people who think differently.

The campaign ran once. It built a mythology that still drives purchasing decisions 40 years later.

When TBWA (Dru's agency) took on Absolut Vodka in 1980, the vodka category's conventions were clear: Russian heritage, masculinity, straightforward drinking occasions. Every brand followed them.

Absolut's disruption: make the bottle the hero of minimalist, art-world-adjacent print ads with punning headlines. 'Absolut Perfection.' 'Absolut L.A.' The brand entered the art world's visual language — a category convention that didn't exist in spirits.

The campaign ran for 25 years and 1,500 executions. The convention never changed. The creativity within the convention was infinite. That is disruption done right.

The diagnostic questions:

1. 1.What are the top 5 conventions in your category? (Write them down. Explicitly.)
2. 2.Which of these conventions is most misaligned with where your target consumer is culturally moving?
3. 3.What would your brand look like if it broke that convention completely?
4. 4.Is there a brand vision large enough to sustain a multi-year campaign built on that break?

If you can't answer question 4, you're not ready to disrupt. You're ready to provoke — and provocations don't build brands.

AdLegends Mentor channels Dru's disruption framework to evaluate whether your campaign is breaking conventions strategically or just following the herd with slightly better production values.