🤳 Addicted
The attention economy has your customer. Here's how to win them back.
📢 Ad Pick
Vote for the ad you want us to break down next week.
Option #1: This ad leans into conspiracy theory to position a mundane product as something special.
Option #2: This ad uses the product’s packaging to prove the selling point.
To help me lower my screen time, I’ve been focusing on analog hobbies these past couple of months.
With addictive algorithms, it’s hard to stay off social media and enjoy the physical world around you.
That’s why Pinterest’s new anti-social media ad has audiences raving with their counterintuitive hook.
Watch how Pinterest stands in a class of its own here.

In this nostalgic ad, Pinterest sells their own platform by unexpectedly arguing against social media.
This ad works because it differentiates Pinterest as a social media tool for inspiration that leads to real-world action rather than the typical doomscrolling.
By showing how they’re different from other social media platforms, Pinterest creates their own “category of one.”
So instead of fighting their competitors for market share, Pinterest brilliantly shows how they’re in a whole league of their own.
With people craving more real-world experiences, here’s how you can hop on the trend with other products:
Cooking: A phone lies face down with its camera active. As the phone is picked up, it records a messy kitchen counter and a half-eaten cake, with the copy “Tastes so good, you forget to take a picture.”
Outdoor Apparel: A hiker stands at the top of a snowy mountain, completely unfazed by the cold. The copy can read: “Made for you, not your online persona.”
Headphones: Show a shot of someone dancing wildly in their living room with high-end headphones on, completely oblivious to their surroundings. The ad’s tagline could be: “The sound that always takes you to a world of your own.”
The best brands make something worth putting your phone down for.
P.S.
If you’re interested in learning how hobbies help fix your brain rot, check out Dr. Izzy’s video where she breaks down the neuroscience behind it.
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Pinterest carved out a category of one by arguing against the very thing they're a part of.
This next ad does something just as bold by making their customer’s biggest insecurity the punchline.
Upgrade to premium to read it:


