I often find myself referencing this image made by my twitter friend Samuel Hulick, who runs @UserOnboard:
It’s a simple, sticky, powerful idea, and I’ve found myself sharing it with clients all the time.
Charles Atlas did a version of this decades ago with his “Chump To Champ” ads.
The general principle here is that you want to show your prospective customers what your product can do for them.
There are some exceptions to the rule – if your product is something of exceptional craftsmanship, like an iPhone or a Dyson hairdryer – then it can make sense to do ads that show off the craftsmanship of the product, to convey how it’s superior to its competitors.
In the buildup to the internal release of Apple’s Think Different campaign, Steve Jobs talked about how “Got Milk” showed the absence of the product, and how Nike doesn’t focus on its shoes, but celebrates great athletes and athletics.
These are all slightly different variations but the point is that you want to show the effect that the product has.