Weird Ideas Inc.

Why not start your own company, invent something that doesn't exist and try to sell it to your neighbours! 

Our podcast is full of seriously good ideas for silly products. Every episode we share ideas that have come from our listeners. A box of cereal made entirely of toenails? A deodorant for your feelings? Tickets to a zoo of interestingly shaped rocks?

Listen to examples here.

You are now a junior LOL-vertising executive. We want you to come up with absurd adverts for your made-up things.

What you need:

  • Paper or cardboard

  • Pens

  • Your voice

  • Optional: a device to record yourself on

  • 2 toilet rolls (one for 

How to do it:

First, invent your product. Try one of these:

  • Mash-up: pick an animal and a mode of transport. Congratulations, that's your product.

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

  • Weird but useful: what product do you WISH existed but doesn't?

Then 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.