diff --git a/playbooks/zuul-stream/fixtures/test-stream.yaml b/playbooks/zuul-stream/fixtures/test-stream.yaml
index 6a31ff8..fd28757 100644
--- a/playbooks/zuul-stream/fixtures/test-stream.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/zuul-stream/fixtures/test-stream.yaml
@@ -10,6 +10,10 @@
       debug:
         var: setupvar
 
+    - name: Output a debug sentence
+      debug:
+        msg: This is a debug message
+
     - name: Run a shell task
       command: ip addr show
 
diff --git a/zuul/ansible/callback/zuul_stream.py b/zuul/ansible/callback/zuul_stream.py
index 496dff4..347f080 100644
--- a/zuul/ansible/callback/zuul_stream.py
+++ b/zuul/ansible/callback/zuul_stream.py
@@ -373,9 +373,20 @@
             for key in [k for k in result_dict.keys()
                         if k.startswith('_ansible')]:
                 del result_dict[key]
-            self._log_message(
-                msg=json.dumps(result_dict, indent=2, sort_keys=True),
-                status=status, result=result)
+            keyname = next(iter(result_dict.keys()))
+            # If it has msg, that means it was like:
+            #
+            #  debug:
+            #    msg: Some debug text the user was looking for
+            #
+            # So we log it with self._log to get just the raw string the
+            # user provided.
+            if keyname == 'msg':
+                self._log(msg=result_dict['msg'])
+            else:
+                self._log_message(
+                    msg=json.dumps(result_dict, indent=2, sort_keys=True),
+                    status=status, result=result)
         elif result._task.action not in ('command', 'shell'):
             if 'msg' in result_dict:
                 self._log_message(msg=result_dict['msg'],