Hey - It's Carson. Welcome back to the maddest ad newsletter on the internet.

Fun fact: Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on TV.

On April 30, 1952, he became the first toy commercial to target children directly. Before this, commercials only targeted adults.

Crazy how far things have come. Now we advertise anything from condoms to B2B SaaS. I say we bring back print-only ads for a year, and the world goes dark on social media. I think it’d be funny to see who goes crazy and who finds everlasting peace.

We need more people (myself included) touching grass.

Enough side-tangents from me, here are this week’s best ads.

Ads of the Week

Buckley’s, IKEA, Dollar Shave Club, Brawny, Origin

Buckley’s

🧠 Principle: Reverse Psychology

🖋️ Definition: Encouraging someone to act the opposite of what you desire by suggesting the inverse, hoping they will do what is actually wanted.

💡 Why it works: Combating objections and poking fun of yourself, then flipping it into a positive is undefeated in advertising.

The line “It tastes awful. And it works.” embraces Buckley’s biggest drawback… The taste. It turns it into a signal of effectiveness and cancels out objections from haters.

Because even if you hate the taste, you won’t be able to deny that it doesn’t work. It does, even though it tastes like dog shit.

People typically expect medicine to be bitter or ineffective. Buckley’s positions itself as so effective, it must be awful. “Yeah, it sucks. That’s how you know it’s legit.” That alone makes the ad feel honest and counterintuitive, which grabs attention and builds trust with potential customers.

This contrast forces you to reconcile that discomfort: “If it tastes that bad, it must work.” And the tension makes the product stick in your big ole brain.

IKEA

🧠 Principle: Loss Aversion

🖋️ Definition: We value potential losses more than equivalent gains.

💡 Why it works: People feel the pain of losing something (like a destroyed cushion) more intensely than the pleasure of gaining something of equal value.

The image of the torn cushion is an unbelievably relatable pet-owner problem.

“Don’t worry, you can afford it” neutralizes the loss and positions IKEA as the emotional support brand in the chaos of daily pet-owner life.

It flips a moment of stress into comfort. Because you know, IKEA isn’t just selling cheap products, it’s selling peace of mind.

They’re you’re “emotional support dog” for your psychotic puppy.

The humor makes it disarming, which helps you a. relate to it, and b. relax a little bit. People like brands that don’t take themselves too seriously. Especially when they make life easier.

Dollar Shave Club

🧠 Principle: Incoungruity Theory of Humor

🖋️ Definition: Humor arises through unexpected, out-of-place, or illogical instances.

💡 Why it works: Listen, I love “yo mamma” jokes. And this was too good not to include.

Because “Your razor’s so old it eats dinner at 4:30” is a “yo mamma” style joke. Unexpected, exaggerated, and slightly absurd.

Incongruity makes your brain pause and process, which increases engagement and memorability by giving you a relative comparison and including a unique image.

We pay more attention to threats and problems as opposed to gains. Here, the razor is shown as gross, moldy, and comically decrepit.

You subconsciously associate old razors with risk, discomfort, germs, and a bad shave (I’ve made this mistake too many times). But the negative reaction makes the fresh blade solution feel like a gift from God.

Most people know they keep razors too long, but don’t like to admit it (guilty).

This ad plays off that dissonance by calling it out, but doing so with humor, which disarms defensiveness and creates the opening for action (subscribe and solve it).

Brawny

🧠 Principle: Biophilia Effect

🖋️ Definition: The positive impact humans experience when interacting with nature, suggesting an innate human affinity for nature.

💡 Why it works: That sad puppy face? Instant emotional hook. It triggers empathy and a nurturing response.

We’re wired to pay attention to anything that comes from nature (animals, plants, etc.) because our brain HAS to assess it as an opportunity for food, or as a threat.

We are quite literally incapable of ignoring naturally occurring living things (pro tip if you want to stop people’s scroll).

When paired with Brawny, the product becomes associated with care, compassion, and forgiveness, not just mess cleanup.

Doggo pissed on the floor? It’s okay, we have Brawny.

The message frames accidents not as problems, but as “learning moments.”

Rather than focusing on the inconvenience or frustration, it reframes them as normal and manageable, as long as you’ve got Brawny (duh).

The ad also humanizes the brand a bit more, making Brawny feel like an understanding ally who lives under your staircase, not just a product in your pantry.

Origin

🧠 Principle: Anchoring Bias

🖋️ Definition: We’re heavily influenced by the initial information we’re presented with.

💡 Why it works: Anchor your user’s perception of time and effort to something highly familiar: buying a Starbucks coffee.

I’ll keep preaching it, give people relativity so they can learn what your product is faster.

This benchmark (ordering a $5.96 drink) serves as an availability heuristic: "Oh, if it's faster than that, it must be really easy."

There's no over-explaining: "budgeting isn’t hard anymore."

Origin removes the mental friction typically associated with budgeting tools.

Because Starbucks is a nearly universal consumer experience, especially among the ad’s likely target demo (young professionals), it’s easy for you to understand the ad and what Origin does.

By placing budgeting alongside a common habit, the brand normalizes financial responsibility without screaming at you like a Sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Here's an ad I made for Jeep

Congrats, legend, ya made it to the end. That’s all I got for this week.

Let me know what you think by clicking the poll below or replying to this email. If you know a friend who’d enjoy this newsletter, I’d appreciate if you sent it their way.

Til 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.