How To Create Print Ads With "Tension".

AKA, "Drama", "Action".

Tension. In creative departments. In presentation rooms. On screens. In viewers' brains. How do you create a tense ad? You don’t use happy little puns. You don’t write habitually, meaning you don’t “fit in”. You create like no one else has in the category.

George Lois said The best commercials are print ads with some movement. The below print ads have “movement” in them, actions that’re happening, about to happen, or just happened, creating drama.

Five very different ads, except that they all create tension. My creative lessons are never free, because I paid—hard—to learn them myself.