Position Your Product As Essential, Not Optional

Look at this ad: two sneakers posed like lungs, plugged into an invisible body. The line underneath says, “THEY KEEP YOU ALIVE.” That’s not selling shoes, that’s selling survival. This is how you position your product so it feels like oxygen, not a cute little upgrade customers can skip.

Turning Sneakers Into Oxygen

The image doesn’t talk about comfort, cushioning, or colors. It hijacks a life-or-death function (breathing) and grafts the product onto it. Your brain doesn’t see footwear; it sees life support. Suddenly, not buying feels risky, not neutral.

How To Make Your Product Feel Essential

Tie the product to a core function your customer already values: health, safety, money, status, time.
Show visual dependence, like lungs on air or a seatbelt on a crash dummy, instead of listing features.
Use short, absolute lines (“They keep you alive”) that remove the middle ground between buying and not buying.

Real-World "Essential" Positioning

Nike uses the lung-shaped sneaker visual plus the line “THEY KEEP YOU ALIVE” to turn running shoes into a non-negotiable health device.

Creative Variations

Turning Sneakers Into Oxygen

How To Make Your Product Feel Essential

Tie the product to a core function your customer already values: health, safety, money, status, time.
Show visual dependence, like lungs on air or a seatbelt on a crash dummy, instead of listing features.
Use short, absolute lines (“They keep you alive”) that remove the middle ground between buying and not buying.