ØØ3: Arc Boats

There’s a popular quote floating around these days, perhaps a bit too much. Despite its truth, it’s often used to provide solace to those who let others' achievements overshadow their own.

The quote:

“Comparison is the thief of joy.”

Have you heard it before?

It’s been attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States.

While you’ll rarely hear anyone argue against it, I’m gently pushing back today. My pushback is that comparison is unavoidable, and there’s nothing you or I can do to completely remove it from our brain—it’s a thief if you allow it.

In addition to this, I’d argue that the act of making comparisons is as automatic as your heart beating and breathing air.

Imagine a caveman long ago seeing another caveman intuitively grab a bigger stone and a longer stick, leading to a greater success in hunting. The first caveman would have put two and two together and done the same.

Fast forward to today, and we’re still making comparisons.

Whether you’re comparing for motivation, to absolve yourself of responsibility, or to wallow in negativity, what you do with your free will is up to you.

What I’m arguing is that we do it automatically, whether we like it or not, because in the presence of new information, we adapt to survive. Once we’ve met our basic needs like food, water, and shelter, this “adapting to survive” pivots to things like societal status and achievements.

It’s how we distinguish fast cars from faster cars, fair-looking people from supermodels, shantytown shacks from mansions in the hills, and fine cuisine from chopped liver sandwiches.

Since we’re always making comparisons—whether we like it or not—it’s one of the key strategies we can use as advertisers to help our target audience better understand what we’re saying.

A long time ago, when I was getting into copywriting, this one Porsche ad had me in awe, and I still remember it today.

A blurred photo of a Porsche accelerating, it reads:

“What a dog feels when the leash breaks.”

If you’ve ever walked a dog, you can literally feel this eight-word sentence. It’s by vividly comparing the car’s speed to something the customer is acutely aware of, i.e., walking a dog, that makes this ad work.

Inspired by this Porsche ad, today’s ad write-up is for Arc Boats, an EV company electrifying the marine industry.

ØØ3: Arc Boats

Have you ever floored it in a Tesla? It's an unreal experience. If Henry Ford were alive today, he'd lose his goddamn marbles if he sat in a Tesla and went from 0 to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds.

But, we're talking about boats here.

So, what would this instantaneousness feel like on water? Well, when folks thinks of boats, fish often comes to mind. And with how big the planet is, there has to be fish so fast and strong, they could pull you under, never to be seen again.

Let's go with this fish angle.

Inspired by an old Porsche ad, this Arc Boats ad compares its profound torque to that of a marlin, the fastest fish on the planet.

The ad reads:

Simple and nothing too crazy.

My main goal here was for you to know that we're always making comparisons.

Whether in a literal sense, like comparing competitors, or a metaphorical sense, like the marlin ad above, it's impossible not to compare.

'Til next time,

Adrian