Consider this: Leo Tolstoy sold over 400 million copies of his books. Franz Kafka created a writing style so distinctive that his name became an adjective used worldwide. Anton Chekhov wrote over 500 short stories that still captivate readers more than a century later. These writers didn’t achieve immortal success by accident—they cracked a code for capturing and holding human attention that transcends time, culture, and medium.

Now, what if I told you that three modern video ads—with a combined advertising spend of $12.9 million—are using the exact same psychological techniques that made these literary giants legendary?

I can’t argue whether the creators of these three successful ads studied “War and Peace” before creating their campaigns. They may never have read George Saunders’ brilliant analysis of the master storytellers in “Swimming in the Pond in the Rain.” Yet their ads are successful because they tap into the same timeless principles of human persuasion that Saunders decoded from the greatest minds in literature.

In the next few minutes, you’ll discover:

• Why a debt relief ad uses the same “escalation technique” that made Tolstoy’s character transformations unforgettable

• How a vision supplement commercial employs Kafka’s mastery of “logical impossibility” to make outrageous claims believable

• The specific “character development through specification” method that Chekhov pioneered—and how it turns generic testimonials into compelling proof

• Why the “Things I Couldn’t Help Noticing” principle explains exactly when and why viewers stop scrolling (and how to prevent it)

• The “ruthless efficiency” filter that separates amateur copy from million-dollar messaging