129: Instant Hydration's "Brain Fog" Ad: When Your Visual Says Something Your Copy Didn't Mean

This ad is either genius or an accident. Either way, the internet noticed.

Hey everyone, Chase here.

Today's breakdown is one of those ads where what the brand intended and what the audience sees are two very different things.

Instant Hydration — a premium electrolyte drink mix — ran this ad with the headline "Brain Fog's Worst Enemy" over a packet sitting on top of an explosion of white powder.

If you're a health and wellness buyer, you see an electrolyte packet. Clean ingredients. Premium positioning.

If you're anyone who's spent more than 15 minutes on the internet… you see something else entirely.

In this issue:

• Why visual context can completely override your copy

• The fine line between "edgy" and "accidentally edgy"

• How to audit your creative for unintended reads before your comment section does it for you

Take a look:

Let's start with what they were trying to do.

The creative brief here is obvious and honestly pretty solid:

• Hero the single-serve packet

• Lead with a benefit-driven headline (brain fog = relatable problem)

• Show the raw ingredients (the powder) to signal transparency and purity

• Stack the ingredient callouts at the bottom (French Sea Salt, Potassium, Magnesium, Aquamin®)

• Close with the "Zero Sugar. Zero Junk. Just Real Hydration." tagline

On paper? Clean. Functional. Clear hierarchy.

The headline does its job. "Brain Fog's Worst Enemy" identifies a problem and positions the product as the solution. "Enemy" adds urgency. The red accent on "Enemy" draws the eye.

The ingredient stack at the bottom builds credibility. Named ingredients signal premium formulation.

The tagline closes with a "zero" framework that works in every supplement category.

If this ad existed as a wireframe, you'd approve it.

The problem is it doesn't exist as a wireframe.

The visual is doing 90% of the talking — and it's saying the wrong thing.

A single packet.

Sitting on a pile of white powder.

With the headline "Brain Fog's Worst Enemy."

Let's just say what everyone in the comments is thinking.

This looks like a drug ad.

The powder explosion behind the packet isn't reading as "premium electrolyte ingredients." It's reading as something you'd find on a table at 3 AM in a Miami nightclub.

And "Brain Fog's Worst Enemy" — a headline that's perfectly fine in a wellness context — suddenly takes on a very different meaning when paired with a pile of white powder and the promise of instant mental clarity.

[INSERT IMAGE: The ad again, or a zoomed crop of the powder splash]

Here's the thing: this might not be an accident.

Brands in the supplement space have been flirting with edgy visual language for years. Liquid Death built an empire on looking like a beer company. Prime made energy drinks look like luxury bottles. The "looks like something it's not" play is a legitimate creative strategy.

But there's a difference between controlled provocation and unintended association. And this one feels like it landed somewhere in the middle.

The "powder splash" trend in supplement advertising.

Instant Hydration isn't the first brand to use a powder explosion as a visual device. It's become a category convention — show the raw powder to signal "real ingredients" and "nothing to hide."

Protein brands do it. Creatine brands do it. Pre-workout brands do it.

The difference is context.

When a creatine brand shows powder, you expect powder. It's a powder product. The visual matches the category.

When a single-serve drink mix packet shows a powder explosion, the visual is doing extra work. The product is a packet. You never see the powder — you tear, pour, and mix. The powder isn't the experience.

So showing it isn't demonstrating the product. It's creating a texture and an energy.

And the texture and energy it's creating is… well.

You know.

Each week, I delve into the secrets of what makes advertisements tick. But when it comes to crafting them, CreativeOS is your ultimate destination.

Imagine a treasure trove of over 10,000 templates at your fingertips, paired with an AI that evolves to understand your unique style.

It's a creative powerhouse that sharpens with every use, serving as the backbone of the newsletter.

Try CreativeOS free →

The comment section test.

Every ad should pass what I call the comment section test before it goes live:

If a stranger with zero context sees this ad in their feed, what's the first joke they'll make?

If the first joke undermines your brand positioning, you have a problem.

For a premium wellness brand trying to build trust around clean ingredients and health benefits, the first joke being a drug reference is… not ideal.

The worst part is that the joke is funnier than the ad. And when the joke is funnier than the ad, the joke becomes the ad. That's what people screenshot. That's what gets shared. That's the context your brand now lives in.

You don't get to choose what people see. You only get to choose what you show them.

What would fix this without losing the concept.

The headline is fine. Keep it.

The ingredient stack is strong. Keep it.

The packet hero is clean. Keep it.

The fix is the powder.

Option 1: Replace the powder splash with a water splash. The product is a drink mix. Show the moment it hits water — the dissolution, the color change, the fizz. That's the actual product experience, and it doesn't look like a controlled substance.

Option 2: Show the packet torn open, pouring into a glass. This creates the same "raw ingredient" transparency without the pile-of-powder association.

Option 3: Remove the powder entirely and let the packet and copy do the work. The headline and ingredient list are strong enough to carry the ad without a visual metaphor that creates more problems than it solves.

What this teaches us about Creative Discipline

Instant Hydration made a fundamentally solid ad — clear headline, strong benefit, credible ingredients, clean layout.

But they didn't audit the visual for unintended reads.

And in paid social, the visual is the first impression. People see the image before they read the headline. By the time they get to "French Sea Salt + Potassium + Magnesium," their brain has already made the white powder association. The copy can't undo what the visual already said.

Disciplined creative means:

Run the comment section test. Before you publish, show the ad to someone with no context. Whatever joke they make in the first three seconds is what your audience will think. If that joke undermines your brand, redesign.

Match the visual to the product experience. The powder splash works for products where you interact with powder. For a drink mix packet, the experience is liquid — show the liquid.

Edgy only works when it's intentional. Liquid Death knows exactly what it's doing. This ad might know what it's doing. But if your audience can't tell whether the provocation is intentional or accidental, you've lost control of your own creative.

The best ads make people feel something specific.

This one makes people feel something — just not what was intended.

Probably.

Until next time,

Chase