To play At home, in the car or pillow fort

“A box of cereal made entirely of toenails! A deodorant for your feelings! Tickets to a zoo of interestingly shaped rocks! ”
— The Listies Madvertising Inc.
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Our podcast is full of good ideas for silly products. Every episode we share sponsor suggestions that have come from our listeners. They silly suggestions for products or inventions sent in by listeners.

Listen to examples here or have a look at a few below!

What you need:

  • Paper or cardboard

  • Pens

  • Your voice

  • Optional: a device to record yourself on

  • 2 toilet rolls.

How to do it:

First, invent your product. Try one of these techniques.

  • Mash-up: pick an animal and a mode of transport. Mash them together. Feeling stuck press the green MASH UP ANIMAL BUTTON for inspiration!

  • Superpower + item of clothing: Invisi-Pants. You're welcome.

  • Weird but useful: what product do you WISH existed but doesn't? Peanut butter toothpaste for example?

You are now a junior MADVERTISING executive. We want you to come up with MAD ads for your made-up things.

Design your ad:

  1. Give your fake product a name.

  2. Draw a picture of it.

  3. Write a slogan — a short, punchy thing you yell at people until they buy your product. Think "Just Do It" but for toenail cereal. ("Now with extra YUCK!")

  4. List 2-3 selling points. What is it good at? What is it terrible at? Who should definitely not buy it under any circumstances?

  5. Add the fine print. This is where it gets really funny.

  6. Pick your ad trick:

    • Exaggeration: "Removes 4000% of stains!"

    • Celebrity endorsement: "Used by Beyoncé's dog!"

    • Fear-based selling: "Don't be the only one without it..."

    • Statistics: "100% of Nans agree!"

Need inspiration? Try these:

  • Homework-in-a-Can — "Just open, pour, and pretend you did it!"

  • Teleportaloo — "Flush and fly to another dimension!"

  • Elbow-Be-Gone — "Do you have too many elbows?"

  • Shoe-nana — "Shoes that smell like, look like and are actually bananas."

Now perform it. Stand up. Use your best announcer voice. Sell it to whoever is in the room, in the car, or unfortunate enough to be walking past. If you want to record it, even better.

SEE BELOW FOR SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM OUR PODCAST LISTENERS