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  • 8-JUN-2025 | Mitsubishi’s “A Simple Screw” Ad

8-JUN-2025 | Mitsubishi’s “A Simple Screw” Ad

Author

Dan Bogachek
June 08, 2025

You glance at your watch.

It’s 6:28. You’ve been at it since 3.
Crap. Your hot date is at 7. Running late. Sink shower it is.
Nowhere close to done editing…

“…at least all the ideas are laid out, so there’s that. Did I miss anything? I don’t think so? Ok, but how do I make it flow? I need to get the final draft to Stacey for design asap, team cutoff is at noon Thursday…”

You’ve spent dinner completely distracted. Your date just took off. You go home exhausted, plod to your desk, and flip open the laptop.

Or… what if:

5:41 — you’re out of the shower and lip-syncing.
6:17 — dressed to the nines and zenned out.
7:03 — the sunset glints off your aviators as you smile hello.
8:36 — it actually feels like you’re hitting it off. Not just hot, funny to boot.
Next morning, 9:27 — final draft ready in your inbox.
10:31 — Stacey messages back, “thanks, looks good!”

The difference?

Copygloss handled it. Before you left for the date, actually.

For help with editing, email Dan:
[email protected].

Mitsubishi’s “A Simple Screw” Ad

A simple screw cannot convince you to buy a car.
This is not just a simple screw.

In order to develop this part of only 3 inches, thousands of dollars were invested. It was created 26 years ago and it has gone through several re-evaluations that have taken a great number of super computer hours and super engineers analyzing its resistance and efficiency. Enough to overcome the extreme conditions it would be exposed to. Its materials, metal bindings have been chosen and tested in the desert. Frozen or hot. It may look like any screw but it’s definitely not any screw. The car it belongs to has won Dakar Rally 12 times, the most difficult test in the world. And if this car’s simple screw has all this know-how think about this car as a whole. 🏁 

1) The hook: a challenge to the reader with “you” built in, then a little subversion. Why only a little? Because the subverting element is a vague label. But the vague label creates curiosity to keep reading. A sequence of attention grab, then a micro surprise and curiosity to pull you in.

2) Then we see just how much attention goes into something as “simple” as a screw. It’s specific (3 inches, thousands of dollars, 26 years ago, super computers, 12 times), novel (how often do you read about screws?), and it’s a story — which makes it sticky. The screw has a wee bit of a hero’s journey.

3) It’s an awareness ad with the goal of priming your brain for the next time you think about buying a car. The last sentence has you extrapolating, imagining the quality of the car. And, end scene. Intentional and perfect. What did this just do? It made this memorable story about a screw now point to: “Mitsubishi as a whole = highly engineered.”