Casper's New Subway Ads Pose Puzzles to Get You Thinking About Going Back to Bed

If mattress brand Casper’s ads seem as much a part of your subway commute as maintenance delays and avoiding eye contact, there’s a good reason for that: They work.

“In our early days, our subway ads played a huge role in building awareness of the Casper brand,” says CMO Jeff Brooks. “Even today, when I ask people how they heard about Casper, many say it was our memorable subway creative.”

Now the challenger brand has a new creative campaign rolling out on NYC trains, and the goal is to give your brain something to think about on the subway other than identifying strange smells or wondering how much bigger your apartment would be in Poughkeepsie.

New ads developed by Casper’s in-house creative team feature simple, minimalist logic puzzles—there are 21 in all—that maintain the brand’s connection to the topic of a good night’s sleep.

Casper

“Our main goal with subway advertising has always been to create fun and intrigue around the brand. In many ways, it was our work in the subways that helped establish Casper’s lovable, relatable, and quirky personality from the outset,” Brooks says. “At a time when most subway advertising was very direct-response in nature, we saw an opportunity to be more playful and context-aware.”

The brand keenly understands that the subway isn’t always the most positive environment to catch a potential customer in, but Brooks says Casper tries to help the time pass more quickly with ads that do more than ask for your money.

“People are captive in that environment, and we’ve found that capturing their imagination is often the best way to also get their attention,” Brooks says. “Bringing joy and wit to an otherwise mundane and stressful daily commute has paid dividends for us.”

Check out the puzzles below. If you’re too sleep-deprived to solve any of them, you can visit Casper’s landing page that features all the answers.