How to instantly make your writing less boring
5 quick proofs that unserious writing wins.
Your writing is too serious.
It’s polished. Sounds smart. Airtight.
And invisible.
It’s because when the brain guards credibility, it stops exploring. And no exploration → no surprise.
And surprise is what makes people stop, share, and buy.
Fix: carve out a sandbox for deeply unserious writing.
Five real world proofs that unserious wins.
#1
Cannibalistic Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Cinnamon Toast Crunch once ran an ad where the cereal pieces literally ate each other.
We’re talking breakfast cannibalism. At 8 a.m. With kids watching. And it worked.
Opportunity: If your thing has gone invisible from overexposure, stop polishing it. Make it weird. Surprise jolts people awake to something they thought they already knew.
My take: Cinnamon Toast Crunch didn’t change the cereal. They changed the frame. They made you look again. That’s the real power of unserious—it forces fresh attention on what everyone assumes they already understand.
#2
The Pop-Tarts Bowl Game
At a college bowl game, a two-story toaster rolled onto the field. A giant Pop-Tart mascot popped out of the top. Everyone cheered. And then they ate him.
Opportunity: Big stages magnify everything. Safe gets forgotten.
My take: If you’ve got the spotlight, give people something worth replaying in their group chat. My favorite Super Bowl ad of all time had no strong branding upfront, but within seconds, everyone knew what they were watching and couldn’t wait for the payoff.
#3
Human-Sized Mascots (Duolingo, Cluey, others)
Duolingo’s giant green owl became a TikTok menace—dancing, staring blankly, and waddling into awkward moments. It was so cringe, it looped back around to charming.
Now SaaS companies like Cluey are trying the same thing. Human-sized costumes, awkward videos, goofy content. (honestly, these all freak me out a bit)
Opportunity: People crave tangible. If you can take something digital and make it feel physical, you instantly close the gap between abstract and relatable. Whether it’s a mascot, a physical workbook, or a giveaway tied to your story, your job is to build the bridge.
My take: But…this lane is getting crowded. If everyone else is rolling out mascots, don’t just slap a costume on your logo. Look for the side-step.
#4
The Guy Who Runs Marathons in Jeans
I don’t run marathons. I don’t follow people who run marathons.
Unless their name is Truett Hanes, the guy who runs sub-three-hour marathons, in denim.
Why does it work? Because it’s his purple cow (Seth Godin’s phrase). Most marketing is just cows on the side of the road. You don’t even glance.
But a purple cow? You pull over, take pictures, tell your friends.
Opportunity: Your audience is numb to “better.” Faster. Smarter. Cheaper. Everyone claims it. What they’ll never forget is different. What’s your “running a marathon in jeans” move?
My take: Truett isn’t the fastest. But has more coverage, sponsors, and money than any of the other jokers in the race. That’s the payoff of being unserious—you win attention while everyone else blends in.
#5
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, knights ride into battle…galloping coconuts instead of horses.
It’s one of the most ridiculous settings on television. And it branded itself into pop culture for fifty years. People still quote it, meme it, and reference it.
Opportunity: Use the silly swap. Swap horses for coconuts. Swap jeans for running shorts. Swap polished corporate tone for childlike storytelling.
My take: People don’t remember “pretty good.” They remember coconuts.
Just don’t be yuck.
Not all unserious writing lands.
Good Cringe = Playful, awkward, self-aware. (Duolingo’s owl waddling into TikToks. You know it’s dumb. They know it’s dumb. That’s the joke.)
Yuck = Odd with no value. (Like this pesto ad being mailed around in Canada: a random couple kissing while asking people to fund their pesto dream with “her dead parents’ inheritance.”) Absolutely diabolical. Nobody asked for that level of detail. Nobody.
People forgive odd if it gives them something back.
✅ Odd + funny
✅ Odd + true
✅ Odd + useful
That’s why cringe works. But…
❌ Odd + nothing —> That’s just weird. And weird without value repels.
That’s the rule: odd only works if it gives something back. And it’s not just true in ads, it’s true in how I write.
Here’s where I practice my own version of deeply unserious writing:
💼 On LinkedIn — Everyone else is polishing their “thought leadership” until it squeaks. I’d rather post about TD Bank cutting literal holes in their signage so competitor logos could still show through. It’s odd, unserious, and a little sideways, but that’s exactly why people stop scrolling and pay attention.
🦖 With my kids — My boys never signed the adulthood contract that says, Thou shalt be boring. Their stories are unserious by default: ninjas who ride dinosaurs, pirates who argue about snack time. When I step into that world, I remember how freeing it is to not make sense all the way through.
🧪 Here in Christian Story Lab — This is my lab coat space. The room where I get to experiment, break things, remix ideas, and occasionally fail spectacularly. If LinkedIn is where I publish the odd stunts, and my kids are the improv partners feeding my imagination, then Christian Story Lab is the messy whiteboard where it all collides.
Final Takeaway: In a drawer full of sharpened pencils, be a crayon.
Different > Better.
Anyone can outdo you at “better.”
Nobody can outdo you at “different.”
The gift of deeply unserious writing frees you to probe and surprise.
And if you want real-world examples of this in action, I keep an active swipe file called The Lab Notes—a vault of hooks, oddball marketing stunts, and story ideas I’ve been collecting. It’s the same playground I pull from when I write posts like this one.
👉 You can dig into it here: Lab Notes Swipe File
MY BEST FINDS
I scoured the internet, and here are the best things I could find this week. If you find something worth sharing with the rest of the Lab, reply to this email!
🧙♂️ Story
Answer 5 Simple Questions to Tell ANY Story (YouTube)
YouTube storytelling at its finest. High School kid. Small budget. A group of friends. 8.7M views. (YouTube)
Emails don’t have to be boring. Even ones about socks (LinkedIn)
💡 Marketing
Which oat milk would you grab first?…want to know why you chose that one? (LinkedIn)
Ya’ll hear about the Hormozi takeover weekend? Of course you did. Here's a rational analysis of how Hormozi ACTUALLY makes money. (LinkedIn)
👀 ICYMI
Why Tolkien hated Disney (Christian Story Lab)
The fastest email SOP on LinkedIn (LinkedIn)
I shared my personal idea database (The Lab Notes)
~
Keep writing what matters,
— Payton
P.S. If there is a fellow writer, copywriter, marketer in your orbit who would benefit from these emails, here is a fancy button to click 👇