This creepy childhood trauma quiz ad has over $220k+ in ad spend…

Want to see some YouTube Shorts ads that are scaling right now, using VidTao ad intelligence software

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: Childhood trauma test app ad (Breeze Wellbeing)

Our first ad pick has no voiceover. No presenter:

Just a slow-burning AI-painted image of a childhood home at dusk, two silhouettes visible in a lit window, spooky ambient music underneath. And a single line of text on screen:

"I always wondered why my childhood felt so blurry... until I saw this."

Then it cuts to the product - a "Childhood Trauma Test" inside what looks like a dark-themed app.

The test itself is the ad. You watch someone interact with genuinely unsettling psychological questions: an ambiguous audio clip ("What do you hear first - Fear me? Or Hear me?"), an optical illusion image that could be an evil clown or two women, a voice recording of a woman crying that asks you to identify what she's saying.
Every question is designed to feel like it's already reading you.

Then the results screen drops. "High indicators of Physical Childhood Abuse." Percentage bars: self-blame 58%, trust issues 67%, fear of intimacy 74%. Another variant shows a score of 97/100 with a diagnosis of "Physical and Emotional Abuse During Childhood." It's confronting on purpose.

There are at least three creative executions running: the AI painting hook, a viral reaction clip ("When I understood why none of my relationships had worked..."), and a real-life couple scenario where a woman is annoyed at her boyfriend - until she catches him silently taking the test on his phone.

Why this ad works:

•  The hook is an emotion, not a claim. "My childhood felt so blurry" isn't a product promise — it's a feeling millions of people have without ever having a name for it. The AI painting makes it feel personal and slightly dreamlike, which matches the subject matter perfectly.
•  The test IS the product demo. Showing the actual quiz questions inside the ad is a smart move because the questions themselves do the selling. The optical illusion, the ambiguous audio clip — these aren't just scroll-stoppers, they're proof-of-concept. You feel the product working on you before you've downloaded anything.
•  Personalised results shown in the ad = desire for your own results. Seeing someone else's breakdown — "trust issues: 67%, fear of intimacy: 74%" — makes you want to know your own numbers. It's the same mechanic that makes those BuzzFeed personality quizzes endlessly shareable. You're not watching a result, you're wondering about yours.
•  Multiple creative angles, same core mechanism. The AI painting, the reaction clip, the couple scenario — all three reach different emotional entry points (personal reflection, curiosity, relationship frustration) but land on the same product. That's smart creative architecture for testing at scale.
•  The disclaimer earns trust, not doubt. "Not for diagnosis, educational purposes only" appears throughout. On a topic this sensitive, that line actually makes the ad feel more credible, not less. It signals the brand knows where the line is.

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

Creative beats to swipe:

1. Open on an evocative visual that names an unexplained feeling — not a problem with a solution, just a feeling with no label yet.
2. Cut directly into a live demo of the test, no explanation needed.
3. Show an ambiguous question that makes the viewer feel like it's already about them.
4. Flash a results screen with specific percentages — personalised-looking, never generic.
5. End with a menu of related tests so the viewer sees how much more there is.

 Ad 2: Everyday Dose (Mushroom coffee for Adderall/Vyvanse users)

The next ad opens with a guy sitting at a table, blueberries absolutely everywhere - crushed in his hands, scattered across the wood. He looks up and says: "Well, that was a bad idea."

He's just squeezed quite a lot of blueberries with his bare hands to make a point. That point: if you take Adderall or Vyvanse, you'd need to eat that much fruit to match the antioxidant load in one month of Everyday Dose. It's an absurd visual that sticks. You can't unsee it, and you don't need to - the whole video is built on top of that one image.

From there, the ad runs a clean educational script.
Stimulants cause oxidative stress. Oxidative stress leaves chemical byproducts in your brain. Those byproducts cause crashes, brain fog, irritability, memory loss. Everyday Dose contains chaga (antioxidants), lion's mane (cognitive support), L-theanine (cortisol regulation) and collagen protein (gut). Each ingredient has a job and he names it fast. An ORAC values chart pops up on screen mid-video showing chaga at 365,570 — dwarfing acai berry (80,000) and blueberry (2,450). The science gets shown, not just claimed.

He makes the drink on screen, tastes it cold, calls it a delicious cold brew. Then he mentions the VIP free starter kit (worth $100+), which includes a rechargeable frother, a gunmetal dose spoon, breathwork content and a sticker. Landing page shown briefly: "Claim Your Free Starter Kit."

The whole thing runs just over a minute.

Why this ad works:

•  The blueberry stunt is a physical demonstration of an abstract claim. "High in antioxidants" means nothing. Ten pounds of blueberries crushed by hand means something. It's a ratio the viewer can feel, not just hear. Memorable openings don't need to be shocking — they need to be concrete.
•  The audience is named upfront and never let go. "If you take Adderall or Vyvanse" is said three times in 68 seconds. This ad isn't for everyone and it doesn't pretend to be. That specificity makes every person in that audience feel like this was made exactly for them — because it was.
•  The mechanism is taught, not assumed. Most supplement ads say "supports brain health" and move on. This one explains what oxidative stress actually is, why stimulants cause it, and why antioxidants address it. It's a 30-second mini-lesson that makes the purchase feel logical rather than impulsive.
•  The ORAC chart is a smart mid-video proof insert. Dropping a data graphic mid-speech — while continuing to talk over it — signals credibility without slowing the pace. The viewer absorbs the visual while following the audio. Both channels are working.
•  The free starter kit does serious heavy lifting. A $100+ value bundle (frother, spoon, breathwork access, booklet, sticker) reframes the purchase entirely. You're not buying a bag of mushroom coffee — you're claiming a kit. The psychology of "claim" vs "buy" matters. You feel like you're getting something, not spending something.

Btw, advertiser Everyday Dose has many other cool ads beside this one worth checking out and modeling after, check them out using VidTao:

Creative beats to swipe:

1. Open with the physical stunt — make the ratio visual and absurd before you explain it.
2. Name your specific audience in the first five seconds and repeat it.
3. Run a short mechanism explanation (the "why this works" section) before the ingredient list.
4. Drop a data graphic mid-video over a talking head — don't stop to present it, just show it.
5. Demonstrate the product being made and consumed on screen.
6. Stack the offer at the end: product benefit + free kit + urgency signal.

And 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.

Have a great week!