how to write hooks so dangerous you break people's brains (4-step "deep fry" process)

In this video, I'm gonna show you how to write amazing hooks and give you a very, very simple step-by-step process that you can use. Writing hooks is one of the highest leverage things that you can do as a creative strategist when it comes to the messaging component of ads. That's everything besides the actual creative. It is the highest leverage thing to do. Almost all your time should be spent on that. I think that every creative strategist should be a gangster at writing hooks, and you should be able to do it manually because if you can just manually write your hooks in a few seconds, AI can basically write all the rest of the copy From there. There are AI writing processes for hooks. I haven't seen that many great ones, although I think we've approximated some of them, but it doesn't matter. Just learn the skill. The best way to learn the skill is to do tons of reps. And this video's gonna kind of give you some direction on how you can do those types of reps. So let's get into it. Writing hooks is ridiculously simple, although not necessarily easy. If you practice them manually for a long time, you can write them in seconds. And it's one skill like learning to ride a bike that you never really forget. So I highly recommend that you practice, get a few hundred to 1,000 reps, and then you're done. That's not 100,000, that's 100 to 1,000 reps. And you're done. Hooks are a huge component of an ad, and if you nail the hook, especially if you have Genesis Bots, which is basically our coaching program down below, you can easily crank out unlimited amounts of ads in seconds. Which, by the way, let me just be clear if you don't know who I am. My name is Luke Iha. My business partner Mario Consiglia and I are copywriters who generate over $100 million each with our copy. We have a community of over 433 creative strategists. That's the most up-to-date numbers. We have creative strategists for brands like this. Here's a wall of some of our top wins. They're pretty good and it should be linked down below so you can kind of check out our pedigree, see what we're about, check out some of these other videos, see if we're bullshit or not. And we can take it from there. So inside of Genesis, which is our coaching program, you can get access down to below. You can hop on a call, watch a video, yada yada, all that stuff. That inside of that program, we have been teaching a ton of different hooks, especially on our feedback calls, which my business partner and I do every single week. And we go crazy. We've been really workshopping this with people and people have been really happy. So, I've taken all those lessons from those calls to give to you on a silver platter. You're welcome. So, the process is 4 simple steps: isolate the idea, commit to the idea, deep fry the idea, and make it bang. This is the most important sort of hook writing steps— deep frying the idea and making it bang. But these are prerequisites. So, most of the mistakes that people actually make is that One, they never really know what idea they're trying to express, which means they're doomed from the start to write a great idea. And 2, they don't really ever commit to their idea. They're trying to do multiple ideas at once or something, something, something. So let's break these down. The first one is to isolate the idea. Again, you need to isolate the core idea of what you're trying to communicate. Every ad has or should have one core idea. In Genesis, we call this a concept. Then the general structure of most ads is something like this. You have your hook, And then you have your point, and your point is basically whatever your core idea or concept is. Then you go into your body, which contains your mechanism, and then your offer. So the point of the ad is something that you're trying to isolate. So this ad, for instance, this is just a random ad that pulled off the top of Atria. Let's see what it is. Never take another statin until you read this. Great. So it's a story. Why the fuck did nobody tell me that? The statin wasn't fixing anything. It buried my husband Ron, et cetera, et cetera. Okay. So this point of the ad is statins don't work because they focus on the wrong number. That's like if you were to distill this entire ad into one sentence, one core idea, that's basically the core idea. Okay. And most often your hook will reflect that core idea just like this one does. So normally what you want to do is you write your ad and then you write out a basic hook. Then you step back and you say, what the fuck am I actually trying to say? And you put it into simple caveman words. So for example, this was a hook that someone had. Can you guess what these hot celebrities all have in common? None of them drink coffee. So basically the core— this is an okay hook, right? But in order to make this okay hook better, we need to figure out what is the core idea, which is hot celebrities don't drink coffee. Or here's another one. Every night you do your anti-aging routine. Every morning menopause strips away the collagen. A perfect little AI-crafted hook. I can tell. Well, so what's the basic idea? Menopause strips collagen. So once you have the basic idea, you have— you know what it is you're working with, and you know how to twist that idea to make the idea stronger. Because believe it or not, writing good hooks is more about the underlying idea than it is the actual language to express the idea. If you have a good idea, it's hard to fuck it up. Okay, so from here, you'll be able to identify more clearly if your idea actually has any legs or needs to be workshopped. So this one, hot celebrities don't drink coffee, it could be turned into something good. By itself, it's not that great, but we could kind of twist it and come up with something that's great. This idea, menopause strips collagen, it's kind of obvious and probably needs some workshopping. Here's another one. There's one type of cinnamon that's loaded with toxic fillers. It's okay, but also needs work. And here's another one, why people over 40 can't get rid of back pain. It's probably not a great idea off the bat because people with back pain kind of know why they can't get rid of it or believe they know why they can't get rid of it. They just want to actually get rid of it. Okay, so isolating this idea is gonna help you know, are you even making a good point, right? And it'll allow you to make that idea a lot stronger. So the second thing you wanna do is make sure you're committing to that idea. So you want your ad to live and die by the strength of the idea versus trying to hedge it by fitting in a bunch of stuff. That's what people do. They have an idea, it's kind of good, so they think they'll make it better by adding a bunch more ideas. But that's like basically taking a stew and being like, I'm gonna make this stew better by putting in Skittles and meatloaf and a shoe and all kinds of other bullshit. You don't make things better by adding things into it, right? You make things better by knowing exactly what the identity of this thing wants to be and perfecting every single element. So in Genesis, we say that we're monogamous to our ideas. Okay? So even this idea, can you guess what these hot celebrities all have in common? None of them drink coffee. It kind of is 2 ideas. One is hot celebrities have something secret in common. And 2 is hot celebrities don't drink coffee. Okay? And you could really choose which idea you want to isolate and focus on, on either of those ideas. So, again, just get really clear on what idea you're focusing on and then commit like crazy to that idea. That's it. Okay. Now, we get into this one— deep fry the idea. This is where we really start to do the work and this is where the magic starts to happen, okay? But, again, it doesn't happen unless you know what idea it is that you're talking about and you've committed to that idea. So, again, this is probably the most important part of the entire process. In my opinion, hooks actually live and die based on the quality of the idea itself. So, you must become a master at cooking your idea until it's the most craveable, savory, addictive idea possible. We call this deep frying. In other words, take the committed idea and produce the most bizarre, extended, extreme version of it that still has a thread back to truth. It's a very fucking American process. It's deep fried in butter. You basically gotta deep fry that shit and then you walk your way back. Okay, that's a quote from one of my calls. Now, there are usually a couple of obstacles that get in people's way here, so let me clean these up. Again, this is going to sound basic, but don't skip this because this is the most important thing that blocks people. Like, I know because I work with people over and over and over again. I've done it for years with people in our mentorships, people in our community. Over and over, I've heard the same thought process and objections. I've gone through the same process myself, okay? If you want to get good at hooks, you need to master this sort of little piece I'm about to share, okay? And just trust me, these are the principles you need in order to have even a chance of writing good hooks. 1 is you need to use associative squishy logic. 2, you need to not be a nerd. 3, you need to master the tightrope effect. And 4, you need to go crazy and then walk it back. So in order to deep fry your ideas, You need to have these underlying things in here. See? So, number 1 is what we call associative squishy logic. This basically means when you're writing your hooks, you're not trying to make everything logical and perfect. You're using associative thinking, right? Where things kind of feel like something else, okay? You're letting connections arise in your brain. So, what is this like and what is this like and what is this like, okay? Your logic is not hardcore. It's squishy. Right? So you can say things that kind of don't really flow or don't really connect. You want to give your brain permission to make lots of different types of connections before you try to reel it in. Okay? The next one is you don't want to be a nerd. So I basically say psychology over facts. Okay? In fact, I said don't be a fucking nerd. And let me actually see in some of this proof in here. Let me see if I actually put this in. Here we go. Ron Javier, what strategy did I do aside from not being a nerd? Right, and then he gave away his secret strategy, but you got to be in Genesis to know what that thing is. Okay, but this is Ron. Ron's great, and we basically had to tell him to stop being a nerd. Okay, as soon as he did, he basically has 2 of the winning ads in this big account, which is awesome. Okay, so in other words, you want to look for your ideas based on what would be most psychologically appealing versus what the Facts actually say. So basically I'm saying ignore the fucking facts right now. Stay with me. Ignore what's true about your features. Ignore what any ingredient can do. Ignore even what the mechanism is. You want to think first from psychology. Who am I talking to and what would be the most psychologically appealing thing to that person? What would be the most interesting idea to that person? And start there. Okay. In other words, you want to look for your ideas based on what would be most psychologically appealing versus what the facts actually say. Figure out the craziest idea if it were true and then see if you can connect it back to the facts. Nerds look at their product ingredients and science and try to find a good idea in there and you will never find it. There are only sometimes maybe 1 or 2 ideas and everyone else has used them. There are no good ideas just by looking at your product ingredients and science. Masters look at their prospect and ask, what would be the most psychologically stimulating claim I could make What's the craziest thing I could say to them that would ignite them emotionally? And then I try to see if it's true or not. So I am not saying don't say things that are— say things that are lies, or don't say the truth, right? Or say things that get you in trouble. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying you need to be able to kind of stretch the truth, right? Or stretch your expression of the truth a little bit. And you're only gonna find that by taking off, like taking off the brakes. I don't know. I can't think of a good metaphor. But basically, just fucking don't be a nerd and don't limit yourself to what's in the product ingredients. Focus on what would be psychologically appealing first and then try to find if you can make that true or not. Usually, you can. The way you make things true is what I call the tightrope effect, which is the third part on here. So the tightrope effect is basically you say something that's so outrageous, so unbelievable, so insane that people can't even believe that you're really saying it. They have to read it, nothing more than to watch you fail and burn and turn you into a social pariah. Important to go the distance with this technique. You must be skilled. So some examples. These are actual ads that I thought were crazy. I went to bed as a black man and woke up as a white woman. What the fuck is gonna happen here? I don't even remember what the rest of this ad was, but like, what is going on? It's it feels racially charged. It feels charged in terms of gender. It feels like there's no way this can be true. It just feels like an insane claim. But there's probably a way to walk this back and land it. Here's another one. Once I turned gay, my wife and I started screwing like porn stars. It's like, like, what is going on on here? And these are 2 story examples, but you don't have to use story examples, okay? Now, the OG Gary Halbert, direct response to me, the best copywriter who ever lived, he was a master at this. And these are some examples on here, okay? He would make very big kind of bold claims and then find a way to walk them back. So here's one of his classified ads: Generous creative businessman wants to find a hot sexy woman with a good sense of humor, right? Seems kind of like, whoa, like That's pretty intense, right? You're calling yourself a generous, creative businessman, right? And you're saying, I wanna find a hot, sexy woman with a good sense of humor. Okay, but let's look at some of the ways that he kinda charms his way back into life. So here's— he basically starts with me, like pretty simple. And... He comes down to— let's see. Like here. I am a reasonably attractive, maybe even semi-handsome, Caucasian male in his mid-40s with a sparkling personality, except when I'm sulking. A keen wit, steady hand, and a clear eye. I've got a good tan, dark brown hair, and a short, neatly trimmed— I'm of average size, not short, not tall, not fat, not skinny. I'm in excellent health. I'm not hunting for money. I could look for any maître d' in the county. country right square in the eye without flinching. So, once again, why do I have to advertise to get a woman? Right? So, then he goes through it. So, even if you just read this ad, you'll see how he kind of charms his way into the way that he talks about things. Right? And then, you have other examples on here. Let's see if we could find one. Let's see if we can piss somebody off this month. How about women? Right? That's kind of a big outrageous claim and then he walks his way back to talking about, how he, you know, loves women and stuff like that, right? Pretty interesting. Here's another one. This is where he talks about like using different types of tabloids. So he comes up with ideas like these. Modern-day King Tut furnishes bizarre backyard burial tomb with Casey Fine furniture. I want only the best, he explains, because you can take it with you. Right? So he's basically reading these tabloids to come up with crazy ideas. He's not saying to run with these ideas, but basically, his practice was, again, try to find the most psychologically stimulating thing you could say and then start to kind of walk it back, right? That's the tightrope effect. Anyways, read those and notice how he starts from a borderline outrageous claim and then tightropes his way back to reality, which brings me to point 4. You want to write your hooks as crazy as possible and then walk them back to reality. Everyone always says, what about compliance? Is this true? Is this clickbait? And they're just being nerds. Again, don't lie, don't break the law, but Be fucking smart and don't mislead people. But typically, these types of things are deflections. Focus on starting with the most wild idea you can and then tame it back to reality. People suffer too much from boring ideas than they do too wild ideas. Okay? And we'll show you how to come up with these ideas. But again, you have to be willing to go there in order to come up with them. Okay. So how do you actually write these ideas? How do you deep fry them? I'll give you a couple specific moves and some examples that you could follow. So let's say, for example, you're doing zinc. And you could basically say, let's say you have an idea that zinc shortens a cold by maybe a day. Okay? Maybe that's the claim. So, let's see if we can stretch this idea and basically say, well, zinc doesn't actually help with immunity. But what would be a stronger claim than saying zinc doesn't actually help? What if we said zinc is actually actively bad for you? And what if we found a way to make it true? Zinc starves your body of copper and copper is what makes white blood cells. So what if we said there's something called the zinc flu? Right? And then we find a way to kind of walk it back and be like, well, obviously not all zinc is bad. Zinc is helpful, but too much zinc is here. So you actually need our zinc or you need this other type of immunity product, et cetera. Okay. So we came up with this idea of the zinc flu, which is, I'm not saying it's the best idea in the world, but it's better than a lot of other ideas. But we start with something that's just boring, right? Like zinc doesn't help immunity that much. And we could turn it into something that's strong. Okay. Here's some other ones. If you're diabetic, you actually have a sugar deficiency. I'm the worst dad of all time and I'm proud of it. Right? Some of those kind of things. So some of the specific ways that you can come up with these hooks is you take a good thing, right, and you make it bad. Okay? Or, you take a bad thing and you make it good. Or, you take something that's ineffective and you find a way to make it actively harmful. Or you basically create contrast in terms of identities. Or you do reverse causation. So instead of A causing B, B causes A. Right? Or you create more nuance. Things like specific types of menopause or specific types of collagen. Okay? Or you just rename things. You give the phenomenon a name nobody's heard of. So the couple key moves that I recommend are you take a bad thing, you turn it good. You take a good thing, you turn it bad. You take a neutral thing, you turn it bad. You use reverse causation. You do types of types and rename it. Underneath those moves are a few key lessons. You use contrast to create attention. You use surprise, something unexpected. You use nuance, and then you use stakes. Okay? If you focus on creating maximum contrast, surprise, nuance, and stakes, your underlying ideas will get a lot better. Now, now that you have a strong core idea, the last thing you want to do is make that idea bang. And here's the simple way that you do it. One, you put your prime real estate first. Whatever your core idea is, you wanna make that earlier on in the hook. You wanna be specific, you wanna use active voice and language, and you wanna use emotional trigger words. This is probably the most important. You can dramatize the action, contrast settings, et cetera, et cetera. All right, so here's examples of prime real estate, specific but not too specific, active voice. And then you always wanna use 1 to 3 trigger words, rot, panic, murders, poison, strips, drowning, banned, gourds, mutates, yanked. Okay, just a couple of these makes an ad really, really go well. And then here's some of the other examples which you guys can read on the screen. You can also opt in below and you can read and get access to this or even throw it into your Claude code if you want to. So some examples is, you know, statins don't work because they focus on the wrong number. Okay. And so there's different ways that we could play it and the hook that we used in the example is why the fuck did nobody tell us that statins wasn't fixing anything, right? So fuck is obviously one of these emotional trigger words. And the basic idea is that instead of basically saying statins focus on the wrong number, we talk about how statins don't work or how they killed somebody. Okay, here's another example. Skincare for men is a little bit weird, and skincare as a man could actually get you laid more, right? Maybe it has an advantage to that. So you could say, you know, people think it's gay to use skincare, but basically it led to me having more sex. So others think I'm gay, So you basically could say, you know, this guy turned gay after I turned gay, had the hottest sex with my wife that I've ever had. Okay? And did this guy actually turn gay in the ad? No, it's just that he got accused of being gay because he was using skincare. And by doing that, you're basically able to neutralize this objection and connect it to a benefit that they actually care about. Again, are these the best hooks in the world? Would I use them? No, but it kind of gives you an idea of a place to start. The last most important thing is if you're swiping, just swipe. The market has already spoken. So just choose the ads that are trending and just swipe the exact hook. Same goes if you're swiping organic content. The market has already spoken that that specific type of organic content is working, so don't try to change it. Just swipe it. You can maybe make some variations if you want to, but in general, trust that it's working. Not every hook needs to be crazy, but knowing this entire process helps a lot. Mastering copy blocks, which is the video I have on this channel as well as a $27 product below this, also helps. And sometimes just force focusing on formats helps a lot too. So there's typically trending formats that are working. Timeline ads. This is what happens when. Personification style ads, and the hooks sort of fall out directly based on those formats. Okay, so hopefully this gives you a little bit of information on how you can write hooks. Let me know what questions you have, what other videos you want to have, some things that I didn't answer in here that I could go a little bit deeper on. If you want to look at more hook examples, things like that. If you're interested in joining Genesis, which is our community of over 400 different creative strategists and marketers and business owners, you can go down below. There's basically a video you could watch as well as a You know, you can book a sales call and basically have a conversation and see if it's a good fit for you. There's some other products below. If you want access to this, you just opt into my email list. That's basically all that I have. Let me know what other videos you want to see, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.