Dating offer: YT Shorts to VSL ad, plus a pheromones based perfume ad

Want to see some YouTube Shorts ads that are scaling right now, using VidTao ad spy tool.

You’re in luck…

Because today is 2 Shorts Tuesday. Why YouTube Shorts ads?

Because YouTube Shorts ad inventory is only going to keep growing: 

...And critically, most DTC & Direct Response advertisers are still under-leveraging YouTube Shorts as an ad placement.

(and the upside is huge)

So, what are some ways you can succeed with YouTube Shorts ads?

Let’s take a closer look at 2 YouTube Shorts ads doing well right now:

 Ad 1: Cupid's Hypnosis 3.0: "2.0 Looks Like a Joke Compared to This"

Our first ad pick for this week is this interesting pheromones-based men perfume, let’s watch it together:

There’s a founder-led discontinuation announcement - but that's just the wrapper.

What this ad actually is is a version history used as a proof-of-progress narrative. 

1.0 worked. 2.0 doubled down and sold 500,000 bottles. 3.0 cost $300,000 and nine months to build. Each generation is a credibility layer.

By the time 3.0 is introduced, the viewer has been walked through a product evolution that makes the new version feel not just better - but inevitable.

The pheromone science claim closes the loop biologically, and a 73% launch discount slams the door on hesitation.

Why this ad works:

• The version history is a trust-building machine disguised as a product announcement: Most brands talk about their current product. Cupid's talks about its journey. 1.0 → 2.0 → 3.0 signals a company that iterates, invests, and takes quality seriously. The $300k R&D spend and nine-month rebuild aren't just facts — they're proof of founder obsession. That's the kind of backstory that earns the benefit of the doubt on unverifiable claims like pheromone concentration.
  
•  "We're discontinuing it and we're not sorry" is a perfect pattern interrupt: The hook works on two levels. First, it signals confidence — a brand that apologises for nothing feels like a brand that doesn't need to. Second, it creates instant curiosity: why are they discontinuing it, and what's replacing it? The viewer is leaning in before the pitch has started.
  
• The warehouse footage is doing serious credibility work: Walking through a fulfilment centre in a hi-vis vest isn't glamorous — and that's exactly the point. It signals scale, real operations, real inventory. For a pheromone cologne in a market full of dropshipped knockoffs, showing the warehouse is one of the fastest ways to separate yourself from the competition.
  
•  "Women get closer without realising why. They compliment you. Touch more. It's biological." is a three-sentence story arc: The claim is outrageous enough to be interesting but framed scientifically enough to feel plausible. The word "biological" does heavy lifting here — it removes agency from the woman (she can't help it) and removes pressure from the man (he doesn't have to do anything). The product does the work. That's the dream this audience is buying.
•  The urgency stack at the end is textbook and it's textbook for a reason: Launch sale + 73% off + stock selling out + "you're waiting weeks" — each element compounds the previous one. None of them are novel, but the sequencing is tight. The viewer gets the discount, the scarcity, and the consequence of inaction in under ten seconds.

Creative beats to swipe

1. Use a version history as your credibility narrative — show the journey, not just the destination.
2. Open with a discontinuation or "we changed our mind" angle — it signals confidence and triggers curiosity simultaneously.
3. Show your warehouse, fulfilment operation, or manufacturing process — operational proof beats testimonials in skeptical categories.
4. Frame the mechanism as biological or scientific — it removes the need for the buyer to consciously justify the purchase.
5. Stack urgency in sequence: discount → scarcity → consequence of waiting — don't front-load all three.

Cupid Fragnances has many other cool, high-spending ads to model after. Here’s a sneak peek:

 Ad 2: Wing Girl Method (F-Formula): "Stop Being So Nice"

Now, let’s take a look at our next ad pick:

There’s a woman in a red dress, eating a strawberry, talking directly to camera about why being nice to women doesn't work - and why she has a formula that does.

The entire ad is a 2-minute, 52-second DR video dressed up as insider female advice.

No product shown. No price mentioned.

Just a sustained, confident monologue that builds curiosity around a named formula, pre-handles every objection, and closes on a free video CTA with artificial scarcity.

It's an infomercial reborn as a YT Shorts ad!

Why this ad works:

•  "Stop being so nice to women" is one of the most reliably effective hooks in the male dating market: It works because it challenges a behaviour the viewer has probably been told is correct their whole life — and immediately creates tension between what they've been taught and what they're being told now. The hook doesn't just grab attention, it creates a belief gap that the rest of the ad fills.
  
• A woman delivering dating advice to men is a credibility structure that's very hard to fake: The implicit logic is: who would know better what women respond to than a woman? The presenter positions herself as an insider revealing secrets her own gender responds to unconsciously. This framing removes the "is this guy just making this up?" skepticism that male dating coaches face, and replaces it with a sense of exclusive access to the other side.
  
• The "F-formula" name is doing a lot of work for a thing that's never explained: Giving the mechanism a name — even a vague one — makes it feel like a system rather than advice. The mystery of what the F stands for is intentional and engineered. The viewer can't evaluate the formula without watching the next video. The name creates an open loop that the ad never closes, which is exactly the point.
  
• The objection pre-handling sequence is exhaustive and deliberate: Good looks? No. Height? No. Status? No. Money? No. Numbers game? No. Each element the viewer might cite as the reason they struggle is systematically ruled out — not to be honest, but to make the formula feel like the one remaining variable that explains everything. By the time the list is done, the viewer has been convinced that nothing they've tried matters, and this formula is the answer.
•  "This video won't be available forever because if every guy discovers it, it loses its value" is scarcity built into the product concept itself: Most urgency tactics feel tacked on. This one is woven into the core premise — exclusivity is what makes the formula work. If it goes mainstream, it stops working. That's a clever inversion that makes the scarcity feel logical rather than manufactured.

Creative beats to swipe

1. Open with a direct challenge to a behaviour your audience has been told is correct — the tension is the hook.
2. Use a cross-gender messenger when your audience needs insider access to the opposite sex's perspective.
3. Name your mechanism — even vaguely. A named formula feels like a system. Unnamed advice feels like opinion.
4. Run through an exhaustive "it's not X, it's not Y, it's not Z" sequence — ruling things out builds the case for your one solution.
5. Embed the scarcity into the product concept itself — make the exclusivity a feature, not just a sales tactic.

To finish off with, here’s a quick look at this advertiser’s VSL-type landing page in use:

With that, we’re all done for this week! 💣

We hope this week’s selection of high-performing YouTube Shorts ads has sparked new ideas to test yourself!

Want more insights like these?

Stay tuned for next week’s VidTao 2 Shorts Tuesday…

…where we’ll continue breaking down winning YouTube Shorts Ads you can break down + model for your own creatives & campaigns.

Have a great week!