Ugly Ads Are Winning Creatives — Here’s Why

We’ve been told for decades that marketing should be polished, beautiful, and aspirational.

Crisp photography. Perfect lighting.
Typography so clean you can smell the Helvetica.

But in a world where our feeds are overflowing with that same glossy perfection, some of the most effective and most talked-about campaigns are…intentionally ugly.

And no, this isn’t laziness. It’s strategy.

Ugly ads are a deliberate way to break free from the “sea of sameness” and make people stop scrolling. They’re raw, chaotic, sometimes baffling — but they’re also real, memorable, and impossible to ignore.

The truth? People don’t connect with perfect. They connect with human. And humans love a little imperfection.

The Aesthetic of Anti-Aesthetic

In a feed full of polished, perfect ads, ugly ones feel like a glitch in the Matrix. They’re jarring, a little chaotic, and oddly magnetic. Instead of sliding past your brain’s “ignore” filter, they force you to pause — even if just to wonder, was this intentional?.

That moment of disruption is exactly what makes anti-aesthetic advertising such a potent (and oddly charming) strategy.

• Grabbing Attention through Disruption

Your brain is wired to filter out the familiar, especially in ad-saturated spaces. Polished layouts and perfect typography? Your eyes have learned to skip right over them. But an ad that looks off — a weird crop, a clashing colour, a design that breaks “the rules” — triggers a mental speed bump. It’s different enough to make you stop, squint, and figure out what’s going on.

• Authenticity and Relatability

A typo. A badly cropped image. A screenshot of a Google search. These flaws mimic the kind of content people share organically. They feel like something your friend might text you at 2AM, not the output of a corporate marketing machine. That rawness lowers the “ad wall” and makes the message feel more human.

• Fueling Virality and Conversation

Confusion is a powerful sharing trigger. When something is so ugly, strange, or nonsensical that you have to DM it to someone with, what is happening here?? — you’ve already given it wings. The more people speculate, debate, and meme it, the bigger its reach. All without extra ad spend.

• Injecting Personality and Humour

Ugly ads also act as a wink. Practically saying, we know what we’re doing… and we’re having fun with it. In an industry where brands trip over themselves to look sleek and aspirational, a bit of self-deprecating humour or visual chaos can make you seem approachable, confident, and refreshingly human.

Marketing Mistakes That Weren’t

Ugly ads aren’t just accidents — they’re calculated chaos. When done right, they tap into human curiosity, social media gossip culture, and our love for things that feel a little off. 

The examples below prove that sometimes, the less “designed” something looks, the more people will notice, talk about, and share it.

Samsung Malaysia: The Mysterious Billboard

The ad: Billboards across major Malaysian cities showing bizarre search queries (“who is M Nasir”, “what does cat food taste like”, “why body itchy after thrifting”) alongside the infamous Windows blue screen of death.

The ugly: It looked like a total technical blunder. Random searches, a system error screen, and no brand logo in sight. Netizens thought someone had accidentally exposed their search history to the entire country.

Why it worked: It cleverly showcased their new Google Gemini Live feature by leaning into the weird, genuine questions people actually ask online. Days after the initial buzz, Samsung revealed it as a teaser for their Galaxy S25 AI TalkSpot, emphasising their key message: “Talk not type”.

Jerry Coworking Space: The Viral ‘Cheating Husband’ Billboard

The ad: A billboard in TTDI written like an angry ex-wife’s breakup note.

The ugly: It looked like a public feud, not a professional ad.

Why it worked: It became a real-world soap opera that people had to talk about. The drama was the campaign, pulling in mass attention without a single ringgit spent on fancy visuals. It’s guerrilla marketing 101 — the most shareable stories aren’t always pretty.

Nutter Butter: The ‘Nutterverse’ of Absurd TikToks

The ad: Surreal TikToks with peanut butter crime scenes, dancing cookies over cats, and yes… shrimp.

The ugly: Chaotic, nonsensical, and visually jarring. The exact opposite of sleek product shots.

Why it worked: In the meme-savvy corners of the internet, randomness is a love language. By leaning into complete absurdity, Nutter Butter turned itself from a decades-old afterthought into a TikTok phenomenon — racking up over millions of views in a short time. No polish, no structure. Just viral weirdness.

The Fine Line Between Ugly and Just Bad

Ugly works when it’s intentional. Without strategy, it’s just… bad. The difference comes down to intent, execution, and audience fit.

• Ugly is a Choice → The best “ugly” ads are meticulously planned to look careless. Fonts clash, images are low-res, or text looks rushed — but every detail is part of a bigger creative decision.
• Strong Message Required → Shock value without substance is just noise. The weirdness should support a clear message, not distract from it. If the idea’s weak, no amount of chaotic charm will save it.
• Know Your Audience → This style thrives with irony-loving, meme-literate, internet-native communities who can spot (and appreciate) deliberate imperfection.
• Stay On-Brand → Even when you’re breaking the rules, it should still feel like you. A luxury brand might use “ugly” in a restrained, tongue-in-cheek way, while lesser-known direct-to-consumer brands can go full chaos.

When done right, ugly ads make people stop, think, and share. Done wrong, they just make people wonder if your designer quit mid-project. 🙊

The New Creative Standard

The goal of advertising isn’t to be the prettiest thing in the feed — it’s to be the thing people notice. Ugly ads work because they don’t play by the rules, and in doing so, they grab the one thing brands are all fighting for: attention.

“The best ads don’t look like ads”, and that’s exactly why they work.

In today’s digital landscape, bravery beats beauty. The brands willing to break the rules, embrace the anti-aesthetic, and celebrate imperfection might just be the ones we can’t stop talking about.