Watch the video above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
My man Dylan is here with me today instead of Stephen Semple. Dylan is a Wizard of Ads partner. He’s got one of the best eyes that I know right now for capturing things on film and video. He’s a fantastic producer, he produces Sticky Sales Stories, so he came up with some ideas and so we’re going to run one of those today. Dylan, talk to me about BetterHelp.

Dylan Bernier:
Yeah, so the ad I want to show you today is an ad that I think ran a few years ago and it’s one that has stuck with me since. I’m in my early to mid-20s, I just turned 24 this year, so I’m heavily cemented in the Gen Z era of demographics.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, me too. [laughter]

Dylan Bernier:
Because this ad ran, I think in 2022, it was near the tail end of the pandemic and people still were, you know, a little skeptical of going out and doing things or seeing people or being around people that they don’t know all that well. And I think this is when online therapy sites, specifically BetterHelp, started finding a lot of success because it was easy, accessible, you didn’t need to leave your home.

It checked all the right boxes for the ease of use and accessibility that people wanted at that time.

Matthew Burns:
Wait, should we just show everybody the video and then the ad and then we could talk about it?

Dylan Bernier:
Yeah, let’s do that.

Matthew Burns:
All right, so here’s the ad.

 

Guy One: What do you want?
Guy Two: I want a job that I don’t hate. I want to do something that matters, but I don’t know what that thing is. I feel like I want somebody to tell me exactly what to do. I want to stop feeling like if I take one more step, I’m just going to fall into a pit forever.
Guy One: I mean, what do you want to eat?
Guy Two: Oh, pad thai.
Guy One: Yeah, so two orders of the pad thai. Yep, that’s everything.

Matthew Burns:
It’s weird because it’s almost off-putting and what I mean by off-putting… It did a good job, it moved people emotionally, it moved me emotionally. It’s just a weird break to, “No, I mean, what do you want to eat?” But it is a dismissive behavior to say like, dude, I don’t care about all your problems. Dude, I’m trying to order food here. Your life shift thing is not important to me.

I just need to fill my belly, but I know they did that on purpose. And I’m saying I guarantee they did that on purpose, because that’s what people are feeling, right? If that makes sense, it’s that whole idea of not being able to trust that what I’m saying is going to be appreciated or reciprocated.

The whole thing, I was like, oh man, this is really like, this is emotionally deep. This is somebody who’s in some sort of trauma. Now I know who BetterHelp is, so I knew what the ad was about when I watched it. But that jarring, “No, dude, I just want to eat…” moment for me was really powerful.

Dylan Bernier:
I think that you’re 100% on it with the dismissive nature of the friend in the ad, who’s just like, bro, what are you talking about? I’m talking about food.

Matthew Burns:
Right? No, and it’s unfortunate. It’s unfortunate that people feel that.

Dylan Bernier:
Yeah, I think it touches on a larger sentiment among young men. And it’s this contradiction between how we were raised with like the remnants of “be a man” while still trying to be more emotionally aware and in control and that kind of stuff. So it’s these conflicting viewpoints.

They make you want to speak up. But when you do, people don’t hear you. And then when you don’t feel heard, it feels really bad. And so I think the ad does a really good job of making you feel that on the viewer end, because it’s written so well, that’s what I wanted to say.

Matthew Burns:
It was written really well. Not just written well, but it was directed well. If you notice at the end, after he says, Oh, pad thai, right? Like, that’s the answer. His grin was uncomfortable. Like, oh, I’ll just squash all that.

Yeah, let’s just eat. And like that weird hold of a smile. Listen, I don’t know if people who are watching this, they’ve seen this somewhere in their life where they’re just that, “Oh, okay, what? Oh, we’re just we’re not on my topic. Okay.”

And then that weird pose that you have to kind of be in for a second while you recalibrate and move in their direction. And I think that’s what BetterHelp is really doing well here is they’re saying, we’re here to avoid all that. Listen, this is a safe place. We’re here for you.

And leaving us uncomfortable right through the end is a very, very, very brave move, and was strategically powerful. Most clients would not hold on to that for as long as they did.

Dylan Bernier:
Yeah, not only did they hold on to it, but they leaned into it. There was even like a riser that was going on in the background very subtly, very subtly, right? You only notice it if you watch it a few times. But the first time you watch it, you’re focused on what he’s saying.

And the risers building the tension, as well as the camera pan that’s or it’s zooming in slowly creeping towards the guy until the illusion is broken and the guy interrupts him. The other thing that I like about this ad, and I know, Matt, you’ll have a lot to say about this, but it’s kind of a random entry.

Matthew Burns:
Why I agree with you that it’s random entry is because we start with a guy spiraling. It’s instantly into like, I just wish I knew what my life was all about and what I was going to do. And I don’t have any hope. You can see him like pouring his heart. And then there’s this massive juxtaposition of no, I just want to know what you want to eat. It’s not just opposite. It’s opposite and harshly opposite to what was happening to the ad, which is what the fear was.

But I agree with you that this random starting at the bottom, because it’s literally starting at the bottom — or where you think is the bottom — and it actually knocks him down further. Which is what the fear is that they’re trying to help solve. So it was brilliant. I’m not somebody who suffers from anxiety and depression, and I’m not saying that I’m better than, I’m not saying that anybody that suffers from it is worse off. I’m saying that I don’t experience the things that this person was going through.

Not very often. And there’s times in everybody’s life than you do, but if you did, this ad would have made you feel a very strong way. It made me feel, but it would make you as somebody, and I say you, but the audience member who’s watching this, who suffers from anxiety and depression. Who’s suffering from this massive… I mean, like you said, it’s coming out of the pandemic, this massive change in the way we live.

Who, if you’re suffering from that, this ad was going to make you feel in a big way. And that’s something that as Wizard of Ads partners, we completely lean into, is we help people feel a way. We don’t talk about features. Because if you noticed, there’s no features of benefits of what BetterHelp actually does.

Dylan Bernier:
Basically they’re indirectly saying we will actually listen to you.

Matthew Burns:
Exactly. We’re the opposite of this.

Dylan Bernier:
But that’s it really.

Matthew Burns:
I’ve talked with Stephen about this and Mick Torbay does a whole rant on this, so that’s the committee versus the leader. A company that has a really strong leadership will lean into something like this. And a company that has a committee that makes a lot of decisions would have shied away from this ad because of all the things they left out of it.

We didn’t put the name of the company up right away. And you know, so there’s this mystery about what the whole conversation’s about. They never really truly resolve it, which is incredible to me. So then I really want to give them a hats off.

And the next time another one of these ads comes on, you’re going to be more intently listening. They, they built this kind of mystery to what’s going on with the ads. Man, like I was really, really happy you brought this up because it’s really powerful storytelling in 30 seconds.

Dylan Bernier:
It’s powerful storytelling in 30 seconds and hilariously, it is two shots.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, I was waiting for the production guy to come out. Here we go.

Dylan Bernier:
It’s only two shots. It’s a long hold on the guy’s monologue, then a shot of his friend. And then back to him when he stares into the camera after he’s been cut off, right? Like it’s, it’s just two camera setups. It’s three shots. Two cuts, three shots. That ad achieves a lot with very little in terms of what went into it, production wise, right. It leans so heavily on the acting and the writing.

Matthew Burns:
Character and story. Yeah. Brilliant. I think that’s great. So let’s talk about this then. So if an entrepreneur is listening to this. If there’s a company that’s listening to this and they want to advertise, what are the key things that you would lean into that we’ve learned from this ad?

Dylan Bernier:
I would say that story is king.

Matthew Burns:
Okay. Absolutely.

Dylan Bernier:
You don’t need the highest production value in the world, but if you have a good story, people will listen.

Matthew Burns:
Absolutely. A hundred percent. I think the other thing that most companies, again, I’ve been saying it… They’re going to lean into their solution to the problem, and not highlight the problem itself and hold there. And really push it. The bravery to push all the way to the end before you even put up your logo. Understand that if it feels like an ad and smells like an ad and tastes like an ad, people are going to treat it like an ad.

Which means they’re going to go “It’s an interruption to my show, to what I was trying to do, whether it’s radio, television, billboards, even. Billboards get ignored all the time. But as soon as you are able to capture the attention and the imagination of somebody without it sounding and tasting and smelling like an ad, well now they’ve got buy-in. You’ve drawn them in. And I think that was brilliantly done by BetterHelp.

Dylan Bernier:
Totally agree. One last thing I want to say here is that BetterHelp themselves are quite a controversial company. And we recognize that. And I also want to make it clear that we’re not specifically endorsing them or anything that they do. All this channel does, as Matthew has said many times, is we just look at ads and we talk about ads. That’s it.

Matthew Burns:
Is this a hit or a miss? And what could they have done better? I don’t think they could have done anything better on this ad. I think they nailed it. They did what they were supposed to do.

They achieved what their goal was in spades. Thank you Dylan. Your first episode, man, this is so awesome. I’m so excited. We’re going to get Dylan back for another episode soon. Actually, I think we’re going to talk about Nike. I’m throwing that out there. We’re going to be talking about Nike cause I brought it up in a previous episode and I still haven’t played that one. We had a little bit of research to do. Stay tuned. Thank you so much for jumping on. Smash the like button and subscribe and tell us if there’s an ad that we just haven’t talked about yet.

You want to hear about, and let me know how Dylan did. I want to know if Dylan should come back and be on more episodes with me. Thanks everybody. I appreciate it. Dylan, I appreciate your first episode, man.

Dylan Bernier:
Thank you, Matt. Cheers.

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