Hey - It's Carson.

I’m back from NYC, which means I’m back to long hours and lots of ad hunting.

Fun fact: Before Americans had toilet paper, we used corn husks to wipe our asses.

So, thank you, Joseph Gayetty (inventor of toilet paper), for creating something that turned us from savages into sophisticated people. Hopefully, if you ever need some TP in nature, you pick corn husks over poison ivy.

Anyway, I got some more heaters lined up for you this week.

Let’s get into it…

Ads of the Week

Hylo Athletics, Tesco, True Classic, Braun, Mee-Ting

Hylo Athletics

🧠 Principle: Metonymy

🖋️ Definition: When a short-hand term stands in for a literal term to convey more concrete information.

💡 Why it works: Newsflash, nobody cares about your features. They care about outcomes like easy and comfortable running.

“Your most comfortable miles yet” is a benefit-driven headline that sells the finished product (comfy running), but that’s not all…

I want to dive deeper into my favorite copywriting tactic/psychology principle ever: metonymy. Notice how they use “miles” in this headline; it doesn’t “technically” make much sense, but that’s not the point.

“Miles” is a stand-in term for “shoes”, but instead of using a literal term, it uses a figurative one that sells the outcome/dream.

You don’t really care about comfortable shoes (yes, this is true), you care about not having your feet hurt when you run 5 miles.

That’s the beauty of this headline. If you want to truly create effective ads, metonymy headlines are extremely effective.

Tesco

🧠 Principle: Emotional Anchoring

🖋️ Definition: Linking a desired positive emotion to a specific physical cue, such as a touch or a gesture, to access that feeling on demand.

💡 Why it works: Hems are functionally used as a way to trim or size up clothes, but here, they’re markers of a child’s life stages: first day of school, nervous to raise a hand, awarded most talkative.

Instead of functionality, they’re tied to emotion and experience (very effective).

Instead of just showing pants that grow longer, or get cut down, the ad uses a metaphor to frame growth as emotional and social development.

This makes the product’s benefit (adjustable hems) more meaningful and memorable to the people buying them.

Parents get emotionally tied to this and connect to these milestones because the product is anchored to moments of pride (for parents) and growth (for kids).

Tesco is making parents feel like this is an investment in their kids’ life and milestones.

True Classic

🧠 Principle: Hedonic Appeal Principle

🖋️ Definition: Focusing on pleasure, enjoyment, or sensory gratification to attract consumers.

💡 Why it works: Statistically, women make up ~85% of the consumer buying power in the U.S., so… why not market a male brand to them?

Well, TC did, and I love it.

The copy divides the value proposition into two audiences for Dual Framing benefits (Self vs. Other):

1. “The Stretch Is For Him” → functional benefit (comfort, mobility).

2. “The View Is For You” → emotional/social benefit (aesthetic appeal).

This dual-framing widens the target market: men who wear the product and women who might buy it for them or admire it. It kills two birds with one stone to try and push women to buy for men, as they seem to get something out of it.

I should also note that it implies that men who wear these shorts are buying desirability and attention, not just comfort, like 99% of other pants.

Braun

🧠 Principle: Incongruity Theory of Humor

🖋️ Definition: Humor arises when something breaks our usual pattern of thinking.

💡 Why it works: Before I get into this one… I’m Batman.

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

Anyway, if this doesn’t stop your scroll, I’m gonna assume you aren’t even human to begin with. This is unexpected, amusing, and insanely absurd, which is why it gets your attention.

Because who tf would do this unironically? (It looks sick af tho if I’m being real)

The suggestibility here, though, is that their razor allows you to shave with such incredible accuracy that you can literally carve out superhero logos in your facial hair.

It’s a metaphor that directly ties the product benefit (precision shaving) to a cultural symbol (Batman’s exactness, manliness, mastery).

Last little tid-bit on this one is that it uses the Von Restorff Effect (Isolation Effect) to emphasize the hero shot of the image to get you to stop the scroll. If you want people to notice ONE thing, isolate it at all costs.

Mee-Ting

🧠 Principle: Contrast Effect

🖋️ Definition: We judge things based on relativity when we can evaluate what precedes it.

💡 Why it works: To be honest, this one isn’t a “great” ad for anything higher than BOF, but it’s so unique and clever I had to put it in.

Normally, I’d have a gripe with it because no one knows who they are and what they do, but I’ll let it slide.

Here's an ad I made for Blue Chew

That’s a wrap for this week, my friend, but before I go, I’m doing a fun series on IG & TT right now. Check it out with my social links below and drop a follow.

Till next week.

Stay Mad,

-Carson 🧪

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