why going against human psychology always backfires in ads
Effective advertising must work with human psychology rather than against it, channeling existing mass desires instead of trying to create new ones. Emotional appeal is critical in scaling ads on cold traffic, as people respond to posts that tap into their deeper negative emotions before logic is applied.
Summary
The speaker establishes that no single advertiser can educate an entire market, and cites the fundamental rule of breakthrough advertising: mass desire cannot be created, only channeled. Going against how humans are naturally wired in marketing is counterproductive. When examining what performs well on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, the most successful posts are highly emotional in nature. Therefore, effective ads must cater to this emotional tendency. The speaker notes that while his friend creates legitimately funny ads, humor alone rarely scales well on cold traffic because it fails to tap into the deeper, more negative emotions people experience from their problems. However, the speaker acknowledges exceptions like True Classic, which successfully scaled with humorous ads, but emphasizes that even in those cases, the ads still engage the emotional component first before attempting logical justification. The speaker concludes by promoting his Brand Builders Academy mentorship program for those seeking more in-depth guidance.
About this episode
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Key Insights
- Mass desire in a market cannot be created, only channeled—no single advertiser can afford to educate an entire market
- Legitimately funny ads rarely scale on cold traffic at high levels because humor doesn't tap into the deep negative emotions people feel from their problems
- Successful emotional ads like True Classic's humorous campaigns work because they engage the feeling portion and emotion before justifying with logic
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] No single advertiser can afford to educate a market. The number one rule in breakthrough advertising is mass desire in a market cannot be created, only channeled. So generally in marketing, anytime that you are going against the grain of how humans are naturally wired, you're just asking for [ __ ] trouble. If you're trying to market people and you think about average person that is scrolling on Facebook or scrolling on Instagram or scrolling on TikTok, what are the kind of posts that do best? It's those super emotional ass posts. And so you want to cater to that in your ads. Like I have a friend of mine that tries [0:31] to run these ads that…
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