Hey - It's Carson.

I’ve been foot on the pedal for a while now, but I officially hired my first employee, and it has been incredible.

Now, I’ve got more time for content and growing the business to the next level. Life’s good, hope you are too.

Fun fact: Giraffes are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning than humans

It’s believed to happen because lightning tends to strike tall objects in open areas where there isn’t much shelter.

So by the off chance you want to try it, that’ll 30x your odds. I do not recommend, though.

Anyway, let’s get into this week’s ads.

the idea lab:

The importance of relatability.

Why are memes so funny to us? Well, simply put, they are relatable.

But what makes something relatable? What makes it funny?

To make relatable ads, you need to understand the moments, situations, and experiences your customers have.

Observe:

If you were advertising toothpaste, you could be like every other brand and talk about the features, how white it makes your teeth, how it fixes bad breath, OR you could talk about relatability points.

The Listerine ad below is a prime example of how to do this.

The reason this works is that most of us have experienced this. We can FEEL the embarrassment.

When you can tie your product into a relatable moment, situation, and experience, people will understand how much they need it.

Ads of the Week

Tripp, Signal, Timberland

Tripp

🧠 Principle: Availability Heuristic

🖋️ Definition: People rely on immediate examples when evaluating a decision.

💡 Why it works: This ad works because it admits people steal hotel items and gives you a prime experience most of us can relate to.

When a brand presents an experience everyone secretly relates to, three things happen:

1. People feel seen

2. The brand feels more human

3. The message becomes more memorable

All of this is because we can relate and have an available example presented to us.

The joke (“Now you can steal the bathrobe as well as the toiletries.”) makes you smirk because you know you’ve done it too.

And in that moment, you’re fully tuned into the actual benefit: this suitcase expands. A lot.

Signal

🧠 Principle: Expectation Reversal

🖋️ Definition: Doing the opposite of what's anticipated, creating surprise, or intentionally challenging assumptions to spark creativity, gain attention, or achieve different outcomes.

💡 Why it works: Normally, brands use their traditional value props to highlight what makes them unique and stand out.

And normally, they make it incredibly dull and it hooks no one in.

Every other messaging app says they care about you, personalize, and make your experience better.

Signal says, “We don’t care about you.”

Instant pattern-break. Instant attention. Instantly gets you to read more.

By refusing to do what every privacy-violating tech company does, the message becomes 100x more believable:

If Signal doesn’t care about your pets or your shopping habits…

Then they definitely don’t care to track, mine, or sell your data.

The contrast against the norm is what they are conveying.

And the fact that they don’t care to track or observe you as everyone else does.

Timberland

🧠 Principle: Commitment & Consistency Principle

🖋️ Definition: People want to feel like they make smart, long-term, consistent choices.

💡 Why it works: By implying that the only thing you’ll ever need to replace is the laces, Timberland becomes a lifetime purchase instead of a disposable product that has a short shelf life.

It’s a wise, responsible investment, not a splurge. A product that earns loyalty because it stays consistent over time.

If you’re a person who thinks, “I buy things that last. I’m not wasteful. I choose quality.” Then they know you’re going to be interested.

When a brand aligns with the self-image of the customer, the customer subconsciously wants to stay consistent with that identity by purchasing.

The visual shows a beat-up but still functional shoe → evidence of longevity.

The headline reframes “replacement” as a tiny, laughable concern → “The shoe will outlive everything except the laces.”

The copy reinforces the idea of lasting value by describing craftsmanship in detail.

Commitment + consistency becomes:

“If I buy Timberlands, I’m the type of person who buys things once, and buys them right.”

Here's an ad I made for Saucony

That’s all for this week.

Feel free to forward this to your friends. It only takes 10 seconds. Writing this takes me about 5 hours every week. So it’d mean the world if you helped fuel the growth!

Happy early holidays, there will be NO newsletter next week given that everyone will not be opening their emails for a while.

Till next time.

Stay Mad,

-Carson 🧪

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