Monk wisdom and a cavity-healing gum ads – solving problems you didn’t know you had

Want to see some YouTube Shorts ads that are scaling right now, using VidTao ad intelligence 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: Leaply, "What monks know that you don't"

An older man with a long white beard, in a traditional-style jacket, stands in a study full of bookshelves and jars of dried herbs, with a temple picture on the wall:

The first few seconds are him pointing at a woman's chest, belly, and upper arms while the voiceover goes "If your chest looks like this, your belly looks like this..."

Then he turns to camera and talks straight at you, with bold captions and a quick anatomy illustration of vessels. It ends on a black card: "Start your morning ritual," with down arrows pointing at the button. The YouTube headline is much softer than the voiceover ("Start supporting your body's natural flow today"), and there's a tiny not-medical-advice disclaimer on screen.

Core idea

Tell people their extra weight isn't fat. It's "dehydrated fascia blocking your lymphatic flow." Back it with an ancient-monk authority figure, and sell a printable 28-day morning routine as the fix.

Why this ad works:

• The body-scan hook is brutal and very effective. "If your chest looks like this, your belly looks like this, and arms look like this" makes every viewer check their own body against the woman on screen. Pointing at specific spots works better than any general "do you struggle with weight?" line.
• Then comes the relief. "You're not overweight." Those three words take away the shame in the same second the viewer felt it. Same move as last week's "nobody's bad at math." Swap the brain for a body.
• The new villain is something you can't see. Fascia and lymph are real, but most people couldn't tell you what either one does. So it makes a great mechanism. You can't argue with something you don't understand, and you've definitely never tried to fix it.
• The casting does a lot of the selling. Long white beard, the jacket, jars of herbs, a temple on the wall. You've decided he's "the monk guy" before he even mentions monks.
• "What monks know that you don't" is a secret-knowledge hook. (The script actually says "what monks know what you don't," which reads like a slip, but nobody's going to notice at scroll speed.)
• "Zero pain at 80" is a specific, picture-able promise. You see the 80-year-old who moves easily, which is what the viewer is scared of losing.
• The offer has a launch date. "Tomorrow morning we're starting" makes it feel like a cohort you could miss, even though it's a printable.
• The week-by-week roadmap makes it feel doable. Unlock fascia, drain fluid, move freely. One small detail though: it goes from week one to week two and then jumps to week four. Week three just isn't there.
•  The close repeats the reframe. "Your body is not old. Your fascia is blocking your lymph flow." It's the hook again in different words, so the very last thing in the viewer's head is the new excuse for their body.

Here’s what this advertiser’s landing page in use looks like:

Creative beats to swipe:

1. Point at specific body parts on a real person in the first three seconds, so viewers compare themselves.
2. Immediately say the thing they're afraid of isn't true, and name a hidden cause instead.
3. Cast someone who looks like the source of the secret. Wardrobe and set can do most of the authority work.
4. Give a concrete "this is what it looks like at 80" outcome.
5. Lay out the program week by week (all four weeks, ideally).
6. End by repeating the reframe, then a short ritual-style CTA.

Ad 2: Larine Co, "This gum can get inside your teeth"

This next one is a reaction-style ad:

A guy with a red beard and podcast headphones talks over a stack of other footage: the gum box sitting on a wooden dock in front of a mountain lake (matching the mountain art on the box), 3D animations of teeth and jaws, UGC clips of women smiling and pointing at their teeth, close-ups of a white smile, a hand holding up one piece of gum, and a little globe full of people for "thousands of happy customers."

He shows up in a corner bubble for most of it, like he's reacting to a video. It ends with someone holding the box up in a sunny forest. The YouTube headline is "Fights bad breath at the source," which, funny enough, the script never mentions.

Core idea

Make the gum sound like dental science. Name two ingredients, show each one doing its job in a 3D animation, then give a timeline (whiter in a few weeks, cavities fixed in a month) and a creator-style "I linked it below."

Why this ad works:

• "This gum can actually get inside your teeth" is a weird, specific claim, and weird claims stop thumbs. Gum is normally for breath. This one supposedly goes into your enamel, and you want to know how.
• It names the ingredients and gives each a job. Hydroxyapatite bonds to your teeth and repairs enamel. Xylitol kills bad bacteria. Each name gets one job and one animation, and somehow 30 seconds of that feels like a science lesson.
• The 3D animation does the convincing. Watching a mineral glow its way into a tooth, or green gunk clearing off the gumline, is more believable than any line he could say, because you've "seen it happen."
• The podcast guy reads as a neutral expert. Headphones, mic setup, reacting to footage. It looks like a clip from a show, and nobody's selling. His "uh"s were left in, and I think that was a good call, because it sounds unscripted.
• The timeline gives people something to wait for. A few weeks for whiter teeth, a month for cavities. It answers "how long until it works?" before anyone asks.
• The UGC smiles make it feel like it's working for real people. They're shot on phones in normal bedrooms and backyards, which is the point.
• The product shots match the packaging. Mountain box, mountain lake, then a forest at the end. Nobody says "natural" out loud, and they don't have to.
•  "I linked it below for everyone" is pure creator language. It sounds like a friend doing you a favor.

Same honest note as above. "Cavities have completely remineralized" in a month is a big overclaim. Hydroxyapatite and xylitol both have real research behind them for enamel and bacteria, and very early enamel damage can remineralize. An actual cavity can't be fixed by a gum, and saying it can is the kind of line that gets ads pulled. The good news is you don't need it. "Strengthens enamel" and "fights the bacteria behind bad breath" are both still great hooks.

Creative beats to swipe:

1. Open on the product in a beautiful setting with a strange, specific claim over it.
2. Name two ingredients, and give each one a single, simple job.
3. Show each job in a short 3D animation right as it's said.
4. Use a "podcast expert reacting to footage" format, with the expert in a corner bubble.
5. Add a timeline: what happens in weeks, what happens in a month.
6. Mix in quick UGC smiles and a "thousands of customers" graphic.
7. End on a creator-style "linked it below."

Here’s a quick look at Larine’s lander in use:

What these two have in common

Leaply and Larine Co are selling completely different things, but they're using the same playbook.

Both name a hidden mechanism inside your body (fascia blocking lymph, minerals rebuilding enamel). Both put an authority figure in front of it: a monk who looks like he's lived it, and a podcast host who looks like he's studied it. And both promise a result on a schedule, 28 days or "a month."

Neither ad asks you to try harder. The pitch is basically: the real cause was hidden from you, so of course nothing worked before.

The catch is that both ads also push their claims further than they can back up, and that's the part I wouldn't swipe. Steal the hidden mechanism and the authority figure. Maybe the timeline too. Leave out the miracle.

That's all 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.