Paddy Gilmore: Scruffy ads feel more human than perfect ones ever could

One line of that interview stands out: “I think maybe the reason why we [Gen Z] like more rudimentary, raw and candid ads is because that, to us, is innately human. Because curated and perfect now just screams robots.”

This struck a chord this past week when I was checking through a couple of new campaigns.

In the blue corner, I present to you Duke’s Mayo. The plot’s simple: a squadron of yellow biplanes set loose hundreds of bottles of Duke’s Mayo to the delight of the people below.

The product falling from the sky! With parachutes! Nice idea, but did the fact that this idea could apply to pretty much any FMCG product disrupt the sleep of the ad agency, Familiar Creatures? It seems not. Hey guys, let’s not let important questions get in the way of making forgettable ads.

So it made the ad and, in doing so, ticked the boxes of ads in the AI age. You get the perfect planes in the sky:

…The planes from below as the parachutes drop:

…And even the castaway on a “desert island”.

It feels uninvolving and even the big band soundtrack fails to lift the ad. Like so many poor ads, what it lacks in rigor and craft it tries to make up for in gusto.

So here’s another approach.

In the red corner, I present to you Wealthsimple. Google these guys and you’ll get a description readymade to send you into a coma: “Get the most out of your money with smart investing products and dedicated financial planning and advice services to build long-term wealth.”

But fear not! Its ads are better than its SEO. Why? Because they are created by John Wilson, that’s why – the hero of HBO’s How to with John Wilson. He’s a New York-based documentary-maker famed for his nervy voiceovers, shaky camera angles and delight in the random and wonderful. As such, he interviews a strip-club dancer about punters throwing dollar bills at the girls. Given we now live in a cashless society, he reasonably asks: “Do you know any dancers with a QR code tattoo?”

Moreover, how many financial services ads today end up with a picture of nipple tassels? Not many.

In another spot, he interviews a woman who’s prepping for an apocalyptic future, asking if the technology exists to convert your urine into water.

These are financial service ads as they should be: offbeat, amateur and lo-fi, made all the more weird by their 80s synth soundtrack. And take the tagline: ‘Invest in the future, whatever you think it is.’ In other hands, you’d get some shiny piece of forgettable tosh. Not here.

The lesson? Humor loves a bit of scruffiness because scruffiness is, essentially, very human. It acknowledges the undeniable fact that we all fuck up. Take FedEx’s lovely Super Bowl ad from 1998:

Or this badly-taken photo:

Or this lovely piece of work for Hamlet cigars: 

It looks like it has been made with a budget that would buy you a cheap set of garden furniture. But that’s why it stands out – and if a brand isn’t standing out, it’s pissing in the wind.

“If it’s curated and perfect, it just screams robots,” my Gen Z friend told me. Is that really what you want in 2026? To produce robotic perfection?

The kids are alright and maybe, on this point, the kids are right, too.

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Paddy Gilmore is the founder of HumourScope: The Humor Consultancy. Using humor well ensures that brands cut through the clutter – he helps them achieve this. He can be found on LinkedIn here.