Hey - It's Carson.

I’m back from a weekend of shooting in NYC for a client. Safe to say it didn’t disappoint.

Fun fact: An 'ultracrepidarian' is someone who voices thoughts beyond their expertise.

So, if you ever hear me talk extensively about math, just know I’m full of shit.

Which is why I’ll stick to talking about advertising. Speaking of, let’s jump into this week’s top 5.

Ads of the Week

Nike, Ridge, Mad Coffee, Stokke, Peachies

Nike

🧠 Principle: Reverse Psychology (Reactance Theory)

🖋️ Definition: A persuasion technique where you encourage someone to do the opposite of what is desired, so they’ll then choose to do the desired action.

💡 Why it works: If you wanna stand out, lean into objections loud and proud.

Like calling your shoe “BORING” in massive letters, knowing full well we’ve been trained to seek hype, flash, exclusivity.

This directly challenges that norm and plays on our psychological reactance, a cognitive bias where we do the opposite of what we’re told.

“You’re telling me not to care about the shoe? Now I’m interested.”

Most sneaker ads scream about their hype with neon colors, celebrity endorsements, and features no one cares about.

This one? Dull as f*ck with a lot of negative space. The contrast draws attention, and looks boring. But that’s to highlight how different it is from every other shoe.

“It took us 10 years to make a sneaker this simple,” uses effort justification (a cognitive bias where we value things more if we believe effort went into them). And builds credibility by showing a commitment to mastering the design of the shoe.

Boring? Try ten years of precision engineering boring.

Ridge

🧠 Principle: Associative Conditioning (Pavlovian Learning)

🖋️ Definition: A type of learning where we learn to associate two stimuli, resulting in a new learned response.

💡 Why it works: If you want your brand to feel premium, link it to other premium brands. The association is what we link together and, by default, elevate our expectations.

Pairing the Ridge wallet with the legendary Gulf racing livery, the ad transfers the speed, performance, and prestige of racing history directly onto the product.

Instead of just buying a wallet, you’re buying a piece of iconic motorsport history.

Plus, phrases like “limited edition” show it isn’t just another Ridge collection drop, but that this one is rare. Scarcity increases our desirability by triggering loss aversion: people don’t want to miss out on something unique and cool.

All in all, link your products to cool, high-value shit.

Mad Coffee

🧠 Principle: Instant Gratification Bias

🖋️ Definition: We tend to prefer smaller, immediate rewards rather than bigger ones we have to wait for.

💡 Why it works: Humans are wired for now. "3 seconds" activates our dopaminergic reward system, which lights up when we think of immediate pleasure.

This ad promises you won’t have to wait for your coffee, and it’ll still taste amazing.

“You’d never guess it’s instant.” uses the Information Gap Theory to create tension between what we expect (instant = bad) and what we’re told (instant = shockingly good).

The only way to resolve the tension? Try it yourself.

“Cold brew in 3 seconds. No machines. No lines.” Short, low-friction copy makes the product feel easy because the processing fluency is easy.

When something reads easily, we assume it is easy.

Stokke

🧠 Principle: Reframing

🖋️ Definition: Changing how you perceive a situation, item, or person.

💡 Why it works: Most dads get the rep that they just help out moms. Stereotypically, we're used to seeing dads framed as “helpers,” not equal partners.

“This is a dad who helps the mom” immediately reframes our societal norms to say, “Na, screw that.”

Striking through “who helps the mom” grabs attention by breaking the expected “norm, and replacing it with a different truth: He’s not helping out his wife, he’s parenting.

The ad is trying to reframe what we think “involved fatherhood” looks like. It tries to shift cultural expectations around dads being primary caregivers.

If you wanna create cognitive dissonance too, create friction between what we tend to believe (dad helps mom) and what we should believe (dads parent equally).

It’ll drive re-evaluation of biases and values.

Peachies

🧠 Principle: Benign Violation Theory

🖋️ Definition: Humor arises from situations perceived as both unexpected and non-threatening.

💡 Why it works: DILF instantly will catch anyone’s attention who knows what it means. It’s funny, shareable, & memorable.

It also rebrands modern fatherhood not just as responsible, but “hot” (just cringed writing that). Being an involved dad doesn’t cancel attractiveness; it increases it and makes you more desirable (scientific fact, actually).

It speaks fluent internet culture, too. “Big ___ Energy” is a known meme format (originating with “Big D Energy”), which makes it fit its target demo.

It’s humor that’s aligned with Millennials/Gen Z, which is exactly the target demo.

Simple, culturally relevant, attention-grabbing. Money.

Here's an ad I made for Nespresso

That’s a wrap for this week. Hope you enjoyed. For more of me, checkout my links below and keep up with me on all socials!

Til next week.

Stay Mad,

-Carson 🧪

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