Hey - It's Carson.

I’m back from NYC, and I've had an insane past 2 weeks with a lot of cool stuff going on, but I’ve got a MAD fun fact for you today and some even better ads.

Fun fact: Koalas' entire diet is eucalyptus tree leaves. They’re incredibly toxic, and baby koalas aren't born with any immunity to the toxins. So, they gain their immunity to it by eating their mother's poop.

Now that we’ve got the important stuff out of the way, let’s get into this week’s ads.

Ads of the Week

Function, AG1, Seed, Heineken, Oura

Function

🧠 Principle: Loss Aversion

🖋️ Definition: Humans are wired to avoid losses more strongly than we seek equivalent gains.

💡 Why it works: The fear of something going wrong with our health (especially something we didn’t catch early) triggers a powerful protective response (a safety mechanism, if you will).

When you make people feel they might miss a window to catch an illness before it’s too late, they’ll become highly motivated to act now.

“Find it before you feel it” implies that if you wait until symptoms appear, it might be too late or harder to treat. It creates a “what if” fear (loss aversion) that gets people to take immediate action.

Function ends up positioning itself as the solution to prevent that scary loss in whatever health scare it could be.

Speaking as a fellow human, most of us assume “it won’t happen to me.” This ad challenges the assumption we have without being alarmist about it.

AG1

🧠 Principle: Bandwagon Effect (Social Proof)

🖋️ Definition: The tendency for people to adopt behaviors, beliefs, or styles because others are doing so, often due to the desire to conform or the belief that a majority is usually right

💡 Why it works: Humans look to others for cues on what’s safe, effective, and worth trying (especially when we’re unsure).

Seeing that over 47,000 other people have given 5-star reviews signals that this product is trusted and widely loved. Our brains shortcut to “if so many people love it, it must be good.”

Since this is a BOF ad, it is the perfect way to get people who are on the fence to jump over and commit because everyone else is.

Now, since we already talked about Koala poop, why not talk about human poop too (there’s a lot of poop talk this week, sorry, not sorry)?

Yes, it’s childish and funny, but when it’s framed this way, the humor disarms people with skepticism, makes the brand feel human, and helps people remember the message.

All while adding problem-solving value that people struggle with.

Seed

🧠 Principle: Problem–Solution Framing

🖋️ Definition:

💡 Why it works: Humans are naturally drawn to solutions when they’ve been made aware of a clear, relatable problem. Listing specific pain points activates selective attention — we immediately check if one applies to us (Cognitive Fluency + Negativity Bias). Ending with the single, clean solution provides closure and relief.

How it’s used: The ad opens with “Painful poops / Weird poops / Hard poops / Loose poops / Infrequent poops” — all crossed out in neon, visually showing elimination of issues. Then it lands on “Regular poops” as the simple, desirable outcome. The brain sees a messy problem set → instantly craves the promised resolution.

2. Supporting Principles

Von Restorff Effect (Isolation Effect): The final “Regular poops.” is visually clean and uncluttered compared to the crossed-out list, making it stand out and feel like the obvious winner.

Cognitive Ease: Short, simple language and a one-word solution reduce mental effort, so the promise feels achievable and believable.

Authority Cue: “Try DS-01®” adds a clinical, science-backed vibe that signals this is not just another random supplement.

Pattern Interruption: The unexpected humor of talking bluntly about “poops” breaks social norms, grabbing attention through mild shock/benign violation.

3. Why it works TL;DR

Seed wins by showing your exact gut struggles, crossing them out to give visual relief, and then dropping a single, clean solution (“Regular poops”) that feels simple, certain, and science-backed — all while using a bit of cheeky honesty to stop the scroll.

Heineken

🧠 Principle: Expectation Reversal

🖋️ Definition: Humans pay attention when something disrupts an expected pattern.

💡 Why it works: Smartphones are generally associated with excitement, color, and endless “cool” features (more like bug fixes but whatever).

Calling it “boring” gets your attention because our brains are wired to notice what violates expectations since it signals something important or novel.

Heineken names their “product” (“The Boring Phone”), but makes it a deliberately unappealing name so you pause. Then it reframes boring as better: fewer distractions, more real social interaction.

People want to be seen as social, present, and fun, not glued to their phones and antisocial. It uses our need for belonging and social identity to convey that if you want to truly be social, drink a Heineken with friends, and have fun.

“There’s more to social life when there’s less on your phone” reframes putting your phone down as an identity choice.

Oura

🧠 Principle: Expectation Reversal

🖋️ Definition: Humans pay attention when something disrupts an expected pattern.

💡 Why it works: We both know the saying “Live fast, die young.”

Psychologically speaking, the original phrase means take risks and have fun doing it so you live with no regrets.

But Oura’s “Live fast, die old” disrupts what you are typically looking for with pattern recognition and makes you pause because it’s not the typical saying.

As I literally just stated, since our brains are wired to notice when something familiar gets subverted, it makes you curious.

And if you know what Oura is, you get what they mean. Live fast, die old because Oura helps you track your health and wellness.

People don’t just want to live long; they want to feel like they’re the kind of person who’s both adventurous and smart about their health.

So, that’s exactly the feeling Oura gives them.

Here's an ad I made for DoorDash

That’s all for this week. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

My buddy Luke and I have a new podcast going live at 1200 EST. Be sure to tune in!

Till next week.

Stay Mad,

-Carson 🧪

---

If you're new, subscribe here​!

P.S. Enjoy the newsletter? Feel free to forward this to your friends. It only takes 10 seconds. Writing this takes me about 10 hours every week.

Click here to see how my team and I can help you get your best-performing ads or book a meeting.