Hey - It's Carson.

I’m in Georgia right now. A ton of cool stuff has happened over the last few weeks, and now, you’ll all be the first to hear the official news…

I will OFFICIALLY be designing a billboard that will be shown in Times Square. Life is crazy. Anyway, I have a crazy fun fact for you and some even better ads.

Fun fact: Deaf people are known to use sign language in their sleep. A study was done with a 71-year-old man who had rapid eye movement disorder and a severe hearing impairment, showing him using fluent sign language in his sleep. Researchers were able to understand what he was dreaming about thanks to his signing.

Anywho, now let’s get into this week’s ads.

Ads of the Week

Peachies, Jones Road Beauty, Club Studios, Kuba, The Economist

Peachies

🧠 Principle: Social Identity Theory

🖋️ Definition: Our self-concept and self-esteem are partly derived from the social groups we belong to.

💡 Why it works: Humor that mirrors real-life experiences creates an instant emotional connection with people who have experienced the same thing.

“Stronger than a newborn’s grip” is a specific and funny experience that parents understand, and it catches attention by comparing a diaper’s strength to a baby’s famously strong grasp that parents immediately recognize.

Parents can relate to the shared experience. When an ad references these “shared moments,” it shows “we get you,” and creates brand affinity through self-identification.

It makes the brand feel like part of their tribe, not a corporate vibe.

TL;DR: If you want people to buy from you, make them feel understood and like a part of your group.

Jones Road Beauty

🧠 Principle: Emotional Relevance Effect

🖋️ Definition: Messages that evoke strong emotions create connections.

💡 Why it works: Directly empathizes with JRB’s target audience (new moms) by acknowledging their daily reality (being short on time and energy).

This builds a connection through emotional validation, showing "they get me".

The copy speaks to a specific identity (“New mom?”) and a specific frustration (“some days you’ve got 2 minutes max”).

It targets a specific person and a specific struggle, making the customer more likely to buy because they’re offering a simple, low-effort solution (“Meet your 1-minute glow”) that satisfies both emotional and practical needs.

How you present information changes its perceived value. Here, instead of focusing on what the product is (a beauty balm), the ad frames it around what it does for who it’s for: time-starved moms who still want to feel beautiful.

Club Studios

🧠 Principle: Aspirational Identity Theory

🖋️ Definition: The concept of a person's "ideal self" is the person they want to become, driven by their values, goals, and dreams.

💡 Why it works: If you want people to like your brand, use their aspiration to belong to an exclusive, high-status group.

“If you were playing here tomorrow, you’d be wearing Club Studios too,” implies that people who are “good enough” to play on that court all wear Club Studios. It creates a powerful social cue: If you want to be part of that world, group, and identity, you should wear it too.

The ad doesn’t push the product; it positions it as the natural choice for those who belong. This is ESPECIALLY important in clothing. Push the lifestyle and identity, not the product.

Using tennis as the setting (a symbol of prestige and taste) to associate the brand with sophistication and quiet confidence, it takes the identity and sells it as opposed to the product.

Always remember that people are motivated to maintain or boost their self-image. So anything you can do to increase those things will bode well for you.

Kuba

🧠 Principle: Sensory Transfer Effect

🖋️ Definition: The way sensory information from one modality, such as touch or taste, can influence another, or how skills learned in one sensory context can be applied to another.

💡 Why it works: Your brain automatically links sensory cues. In this case, sight and sound are used to create an imagined experience.

By connecting the headphones to a live, expressive image of a guitarist mid-performance, the ad triggers sensory transfer: your mind fills in the music and emotion that isn’t actually present.

You immediately understand what the ad is saying: headphones so good it’s like you’re hearing it live.

Kuba doesn’t describe the sound; it shows it through sensory association. The layout directs all focus to the visual metaphor that their headphones deliver sound so rich, it feels like you’re right there at the concert.

Simple designs are easier to process and make messages more trustworthy and memorable (cognitive ease & simplicity bias).

The Economist

🧠 Principle: Cognitive Dissonance

🖋️ Definition: The mental discomfort experienced when a person holds two or more conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes, or when their actions contradict their beliefs.

💡 Why it works: People feel discomfort when their actions or inactions conflict with their self-image or beliefs, so by saying “Because fences make uncomfortable seats,” The Economist challenges readers who pride themselves on being informed but remain indecisive or uninvolved in global discourse.

It implies that neutrality or apathy (“sitting on the fence”) is uncomfortable and that real thinkers choose a side and stay informed.

They position themselves as the publication for people who don’t sit on the fence. The message flatters decisive, opinionated readers (social identity theory), the type who want to feel confident in their worldview, while nudging “fence-sitters” to pick up the magazine to relieve that tension.

Here's an ad I made for Dude Wipes

That’s all for this week. If you enjoyed this week’s newsletter, feel free to shoot it over to a friend! It only takes 10 seconds. Writing this takes me about 10 hours every week.

Also, if you want more content from me, be sure to check me out on all other socials below.

Till next week.

Stay Mad,

-Carson 🧪

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