Add human faces wherever possible

The human brain was hardwired to pay attention to faces.

Seeing a human face, whether in a photo, video, or illustration, activates the brain’s social and emotional processing areas.

… Which makes your message feel more personal and trustworthy.

What you can do: Whenever possible, feature a real person’s face in your ads, landing pages, or product images.

Some brands, like Zoom, show smiling people using their product to immediately communicate ease and human connection. DTC brands show faces of people using their brands.

Don’t forget to add human faces wherever you can. Even in testimonials, like we do:

Bonus tip: According to Science Says, the way you position your “human face” will impact ad appeal:

• Faces that look away are more effective for conveying positive, hedonistic messages.
• Faces that look at the viewer are better for utilitarian products, or negative appeal.

You’re welcome!

When you can’t add a human face, create one

Sometimes, adding a real face just doesn’t fit your brand or product visuals. Or you have different ideas in mind.

But there’s a catch: We tend to find faces even where they don’t exist, as we described earlier.

You know how we see faces in clouds, or sockets that look like eyes, or all those houses that are smiling?

It’s a phenomenon called pareidolia. And you can use it to make your marketing more compelling.

What you can do: Design shapes that subtly resemble a face.

Think two dots and a line, a curve that looks like a smile, or a symmetrical arrangement that the brain reads as “face-like.”

Here are two examples of eye-catching pareidoliaads:

Pro advice: AI has come a long way. With some good prompts, you can anthropomorphize most objects and turn them into scroll-stopping ads for your product.

Like this, for which it took us ten seconds:

Don’t wander too far into uncanny valley

Now, there’s one danger of pushing human-likeness too far: if something looks almost human, but not quite right, it makes people feel deeply uncomfortable.

This is known as Uncanny Valley, a well-documented psychological effect where nearly human, but subtly “off” objects can feel creepy or unsettling.

Remember the public backlash when the first iteration of Sonic the Hedgehog was announced for the self-titled movie?

Or you may have heard how kids were absolutely terrified of Shrek’s Fiona during the first screening, prompting the studio to make her “more cartoonish?”

Many scientific studies back this. One of the most recent, a 2016 study by Mathur and Reichling, suggests that uncanny valley effects significantly decrease both trust and likeability.

In other words, hyper-realistic avatars or AI-generated humans that seem “off” can backfire in ads, and repel people instead of reeling them in.

So when you’re anthropomorphizing objects, make sure you’re not crossing the uncanny valley line.

If hyper-realism is too “hyper,” lean towards cartoonish, symbolic, or deliberately abstract human-like cues. Like Duolingo does:

Sometimes exaggerated, friendly anthropomorphic “mascots” work better because they’re safer and more emotionally engaging.

You can also make them with the help of AI. Just saying.