Trainers Hate Him

Discover this one weird trick.

Early on in my career, one of the major responabilities I had while at Force Factor was to create and split test hundreds of online ads with a combination of wacky images, headlines, and layouts. The vaguely native-looking layouts and overpromising headlines would be imitated by other companies, leading to the meteoric rise of clickbait in the early 2010s. A/B testing was non-stop as these ads were served tens of thousands of times a day across hundreds of different websites, including Yahoo, ESPN and MSN. One such combination with the copy "Trainers Hate Him" would not just go on to have an excellent click-through rate but would spawn an entire generation of memes.

From KnowYourMeme.com page for "Trainers Hate Him":

The phrase was first used in a series of advertisements for the Force Factor bodybuilding supplement that began appearing online as early as August 2011. The ads typically featured a man with prominent upper body muscles accompanied by a paragraph claiming that "Cambridge scientists" had discovered a powerful new muscle-building supplement.

Another layout with the copy "One Weird Trick" would also lead to an entire sub-genre of online ads and jokes.

Role:
Graphic Designer,
Harbinger of Clickbait

Some of my favorite memes versions.

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