The Fill-in-the-Blank Formula for a Funny Ad Opening

How do you open an ad with a joke if you are not naturally funny?

You use a template. One of the most reliable is "Friends don't let friends [X]", where X is a behaviour your audience quietly knows is a mistake. Drop in the right relatable truth and you have a hook that makes exactly the right people nod before they have read a word of your pitch. No comic timing required, just a fill-in-the-blank.

The formula

Here it is in full:

"Friends don't let friends [X]."

X is a behaviour your audience might disapprove of, consider a mistake, or be a little embarrassed to be caught doing. That is the whole trick. Pick the behaviour, and the joke almost writes itself.

A worked example

Say you are talking to overworked marketers, the ones who can never quite switch off. What is the behaviour they secretly know is a bad idea?

Checking work when they should be resting. So:

"Friends don't let friends check Ads Manager during Christmas dinner."

That is it. You have just written a Joke That Sells. It will not get you a Netflix special, but it will make your target audience nod, show them you understand their day, and pull them straight into your message.

Before and after

Watch what it does to an otherwise ordinary opening.

Before:

"Marketers, let's get on the same page here. When you are responsible for brand socials, email lists, ad budgets and more, it can feel impossible to ever switch off."

After:

"Marketers, let's get on the same page here. Friends don't let friends check Ads Manager during Christmas dinner. When you are responsible for brand socials, email lists, ad budgets and more, it can feel impossible to ever switch off."

The first reads like every other marketing message. The second makes the reader think, "Finally, someone who gets it."

Why it works

The joke is doing four jobs at once. It earns a nod of recognition, proves you understand the reader's world, pulls them into the copy, and primes them to hear your offer. That is a lot of work for one fill-in-the-blank line.

It is a system, not a spark

This is the point most people miss. You do not need to be born funny to write a hook like this. You need a framework and the right relatable truth to feed it. Get those two things and "funny on demand" stops being a talent and becomes a process.

Meet Brian

A library of fill-in-the-blank formulas like this, matched to your audience, is exactly what Brian, our AI Comedy Marketing Machine, runs on.

Brian helps you find the relatable truth in your market and slot it into structures that already work, so your ad openings land every time, using the same frameworks our writers use.

Take Brian for a spin and never stare at a blank ad opening again.