What Happy Gilmore 2 Teaches Us About Great Marketing

Courtesy of Joe Crann / X.com

I just finished watching Happy Gilmore 2, and you know what? It was pretty good. Adam Sandler might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but let’s not kid ourselves. His movies from the ’90s and early 2000s were comedy gold. So good, in fact, that they made him enough money to build his own production company. Say what you want, but the man had a formula that worked.

That same formula is front and center in Happy Gilmore 2. And while plenty of film critics can break down the movie better than I can, I want to talk about why it works, and it’s because it follows five of the most important rules in marketing. Let’s look into this, shall we?

1. Know Your Customer

Every sales or marketing pro gets this drilled into them from day one: if you don’t know your audience, you can’t connect with them.

Adam Sandler clearly does. Happy Gilmore 2 taps into the exact things his fans loved about the original. The familiar humor, lovable underdogs, and that sweet mix of slapstick and sincerity are all there.

He knows his audience loves beer, throwaway laughs, and the occasional fart joke. 

He knows they appreciate a story where the good guy wins. This is especially because, let’s be honest, a lot of them have probably been kicked in the teeth by life a few times by now.

He also knows where they are: on Netflix, not in theaters. And he knows what emotional beats land best now that both he and his fans are older.

By understanding his audience, he knew not only how to make this sequel, but how to deliver it.

2. Solve a Problem

Every successful product or story solves a problem, whether it’s real or made up (and yes, those count too).

Golf might be a niche compared to soccer or basketball, but this movie isn’t really about golf. It solves a different kind of problem, the kind we didn’t know we had.

Happy Gilmore 2 gives us something we’ve been missing: a simple, feel-good story about an aging underdog rediscovering his purpose. No gritty reboot, no reinvented origin story. 

This is just comfort food for the soul. And in a world packed with edgy, hyper-stylized reboots, that’s a welcome change.

Watch Eminem give Adam Sandler a hard time.

3. Be Clear, Not Clever

Clarity wins. If your message is too clever, people won’t get it. And in marketing, that means you’ve already lost.

Thankfully, Happy Gilmore 2 knows this, and doesn’t overcomplicate things. Here's the story outline in a nutshell:

A man loses his way after the death of his wife. 

He gets help.

He then finds his passion again, and pulls off a comeback. 

That’s it.

It’s a clean three-act structure. No unnecessary prestige. No ironic detours. Just a story that knows what it is. And the movie connects because of it.

4. Consistency Builds Trust

Consistency is how brands build familiarity. If you’re all over the place, people won’t know what to expect. This is the fastest way to lose your audience.

This sequel is nothing if not consistent. In fact, it almost feels formulaic. 

But that’s the point. Let’s look at it closely. 

You’ve got the classic good guy vs. bad guy setup. 

You’ve got absurdly obvious jokes, loveable side characters.

And you’ve got just enough emotional weight to ground it all. 

It’s the same signature Sandler tone, and fans know exactly what they’re getting. That’s why they keep showing up. And make no mistake, they will watch this, since he’s brought back a fan-favorite franchise with the same charm it had decades ago.

5. Emotion Beats Logic

This is contentious, so I won’t delve into the obvious pitfalls of logic being trumped (ha!) by emotion here — that’s another post altogether. 

But in general, people buy with their hearts, and just rationalize it after the purchase. 

I mean, how often do you choose to splurge on a good meal after a tough day at work? That’s emotion at work right there.

Happy Gilmore 2 leans into that. When Happy needs to sit with his feelings after a rude awakening, it’s his love for his family that gets him out of the pit. 

And when the bad guy bets it all on what he thinks is a sure thing, it’s not a cold calculation, but a gut call.

This movie is a fairy tale dressed up in golf shoes and a hoodie. And sure, it defies logic in more than a few spots. But you don’t care. You’re too busy laughing and feeling something.

This movie doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and it’s not trying to. What it does (real well) is lean on a familiar formula that’s built on the same marketing principles that have guided great products, great brands, and yes, great sequels.

And you know what? It works.

So well, in fact, I might even give it another watch.

Happy Gilmore 2, now streaming on Netflix. Give it a watch, yo. You’ll probably laugh more than you expect.