How to read an ad

Every ad and video in the library is read the same way, so any two pages can be compared. This page gives the seven questions behind that reading, explains each block on an ad page, and walks through one ad from start to finish. The questions work on the library's ads, and on your own ads before they run.

Seven questions for any ad

Who is it talking to, and in what moment? Name the person and the occasion: payday, Ramadan, a new baby, the match, the first cold week. An ad written to everyone at no particular moment is written to no one.
What is the big idea? One sentence a colleague could repeat after one look. If it takes two sentences, the ad carries two ideas, and usually neither lands.
What is the offer? What the reader gets, at what price, on what terms and where. If an ad has no offer, that should be a deliberate choice.
What is the proof? Why the reader should believe the claim: a demonstration, a number, a named user, a guarantee, years in business. Many ads give none, which the page says plainly.
Which lines do the work? Quote them: the headline, the price line, the call to action. If nothing is worth quoting, the picture is carrying the ad.
Which pattern is it? The mechanism the ad runs on, from the library's 64 patterns. Knowing the pattern tells you when the same move would work for you, and when it would not.
Which emotion is it written to, and does it make the Say move? One of 34 emotions, or none. The Say move is the message the research supports for that feeling; the Avoid mistake is the one that turns it against the brand.

What each block on an ad page means

The pattern: The named mechanism the ad runs on, with its definition, how it works and our verdict on when it earns its place. Each pattern has its own page and template.
Why it works: Our reading of this ad in plain words: what it does, and why a reader responds.
The big idea: The ad in one sentence.
The offer: What the reader gets and on what terms, including when no price is stated.
The proof: The evidence the ad gives for its claim, when it gives any.
Lines from the ad: The words that carry it, in the ad's own language, with an English meaning under each Arabic line.
Steal this when: The situation in which the same move would work for you.
The emotion: The one feeling the ad is written to, whether it makes the Say move or the Avoid mistake, and the three ethical tests where they apply.

One ad, read from start to finish

IKEA Saudi Arabia's National Day post for a 1-riyal ice cream, read with the seven questions.

Who and when: Shoppers at IKEA around National Day, and anyone close to joining IKEA Family.
The big idea: For National Day, IKEA prices its soft-serve cone at 1 riyal for IKEA Family members: its sweetness costs a riyal.
The offer: Soft-serve ice cream for 1 riyal at the IKEA restaurant, at the IKEA Family price. Joining is free, and terms apply.
The proof: None, and little is needed: the claim is a price the reader can check at the counter.
The lines: "حلاوتها بريال" (its sweetness for a riyal), "سعر عائلة ايكيا" (IKEA Family price), "انضم الأن مجّانا" (join now for free).
The pattern: Seasonal offer first: the occasion opens the door, and the offer walks through it.
The emotion: Desire, and it makes the Say move: one cone shot close sells the taste, and the price sits under its own tag with the free sign-up beside it.
Steal this when: When a token price on a small treat can pull people into a loyalty programme, with the membership condition shown right beside the price.

Open the ad's page

What a reading cannot tell you

The library reads ads; it does not measure them. No page says whether an ad sold, and for most of the ads here no sales figures are public. Historical ads are read against their own time, so a 1920s tonic that promised a cure appears as the mistake it was, not as advice. And every reading is written to be argued with.

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