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- The end of expensive, terrible advertising
The end of expensive, terrible advertising
Jordan Schwarzenberger
July 03, 2025
Quick mention before I get into it…
We’ve nearly got 200 people in the Think Like A Creator WhatsApp group since it’s launch on Monday 🥳
A load of you have already started convos, made new connections and shared your socials/current projects and I’m so buzzing to see it.
I’ve been noticing a lot of new clothing brands pop up recently on IG, and they’re creating ads that are genuinely entertaining.
Not just tolerable, but actually good enough that you'd watch them even if they weren't selling anything.
Their reel got 1.6M views, 80K likes and 30K shares.
Insane numbers for an ad.
The reel starts with what appears to be genuine street footage - someone being chased through a car park, desperately jumping a fence, throwing a bag over before escaping with a snapchat caption.
The production quality is deliberately raw.
It feels real because it looks like something someone would actually film and post organically.
Then the perspective shifts.
The camera focuses on the person opening the bag to reveal their new shorts collection.
The transition from authentic street content to product showcase happens so smoothly that you appreciate the creativity rather than feeling deceived.
Imo, this low-fi aesthetic is probably one of the biggest strategic advantages right now.
The authentic production quality makes viewers feel like they're watching genuine content from someone in their social circle, not a overly manufactured corpo message.
These creators understand that we're all naturally drawn to stories that feel unresolved.
By creating initial ambiguity about what we're watching, they earn the right to our continued attention when the commercial element is revealed.
Compare this to traditional TV advertising, which operates on completely different principles.
TV ads are built around interruption - they assume you're a captive audience with no choice but to watch whatever they shove in front of you.
This creates nothing but inherent friction.
You're enjoying a program, then suddenly forced to sit through content you didn’t want to watch.
The advertiser is essentially borrowing your time without offering equivalent value in return.
Even worse, the same ads repeat multiple times within a single viewing session.
By the fifth viewing of the same commercial during a Love Island binge, you've probably developed negative associations with the brand simply because of the forced repetition.
And don't even get me started on how bad most TV ads actually are.
Half of them have absolutely nothing to do with the product they're selling.
You'll watch 30 seconds of someone dancing with a cartoon bear or whatever, and by the end you've got no idea what they're even trying to sell you 😂
Traditional advertising also suffers from what I call committee syndrome.
By the time an ad has passed through multiple approval layers, focus groups, and brand guidelines, much of the creative risk and authentic voice has been stripped away.
You're left with content that's technically competent but emotionally flat.
What these Instagram creators have figured out is that the fundamental rules of advertising have changed.
The old model assumed scarcity - limited channels, captive audiences, high barriers to entry.
Today's is defined by abundance and choice.
Viewers have infinite content options and can scroll away instantly if you don't earn their attention within the first few seconds.
This shift has actually democratised good advertising.
You no longer need massive budgets, expensive equipment, or agency relationships to create compelling commercial content.
An iphone, creative vision, and understanding of your audience can be more powerful than a six-figure production budget.
These creator-entrepreneurs also benefit from direct audience feedback.
They can see immediately which approaches resonate and which don't,
Meaning: they can iterate and improve rapidly.
To me at least, this is evidence of a fundamental shift in how brands need to think about audience relations.
Entertainment value and commercial value aren't mutually exclusive.
By creating content that people actively choose to watch and share, these brands build genuine affinity rather than just awareness.
Viewers develop positive associations because they've been entertained, not interrupted.
And if that wasn’t enough to sway everyone - creator content spreads organically (sharing and saves), pushing reach without cashing out a penny on media spend.
I think what excites me about all this is how small brands with literally 0 budgets can now compete with major corps on creative storytelling, provided they understand their audience and have genuine creative vision.
The barriers that once protected big brands - access to expensive production, media buying power, agency relationships - are becoming less relevant when authentic, entertaining content can be created with basic tools and distributed for free.
The future belongs to brands that can think like creators:
Putting audience entertainment first, iterating asap, and building genuine relationships rather than just broadcasting 💩.
Oh and while scrolling, I found another couple examples of IG ads done right.
Have a watch to see what I’m talking about:
Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱
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