Key takeaways
- Format: Classic painting with modern meme caption
- Best for: Consumer apps building awareness through shareable humour
- Hook: Old-world scene reframed as a relatable modern app moment
- Reuse it: Find a public-domain painting and caption it with a universal moment your product creates
Available sizes
What is a meme ad?
A meme ad borrows a familiar meme format or internet joke and adapts it to the product or the buyer's problem. It feels native to social feeds and is highly shareable, but depends on the meme still being recognisable to the audience.
See all meme ads →Why this meme ad works
- 01
Relatable moment
Everyone has stared at a phone waiting for a car to arrive. Naming that shared moment makes viewers feel seen.
- 02
Unexpected contrast
A formal period painting paired with Gen Z slang like 'locked in' creates instant humour. The mismatch stops the scroll.
- 03
Built for sharing
Mentioning a 'bestie' invites people to tag friends. Shares and comments extend reach far beyond paid impressions.
- 04
Soft branding
Without a logo, the ad feels like organic content. The brand can be added in the caption or a small corner mark.
Full creative breakdown
Who this ad targets
Urban social media users, mainly 18 to 34, who use ride-hailing apps for nights out, airport runs and daily trips. They follow meme accounts, share relatable content with friends and respond better to humour than to discount codes. Many already have a ride app installed, so the goal is brand affinity and top-of-mind recall. Friendship-focused captions especially resonate with young women who travel in pairs or groups.
Copywriting analysis
The copy follows classic meme structure: a bold label at the top and a first-person caption below. 'Waiting for the ride' sets the scene in four words, and the caption adds the punchline with 'Me and my bestie, locked in'. The slang 'locked in' means fully focused, which is exactly what the painted women look like, so text and image reinforce each other. 'As the car gets closer' refers to the app's live map without naming it, assuming the audience gets the reference. The playful tone and absence of any sales language make it feel native to social feeds.
Visual design
The painting is framed by a grey wooden moulding and hung on a rough plaster wall, which makes the ad look like a museum photo rather than a graphic. Warm browns and shadows inside the painting contrast with the lilac and green gowns, drawing attention to the two figures. White text with a subtle shadow sits over the darker upper area for legibility. The composition guides the eye from the caption down to the two heads bent toward the book, mirroring the act of watching a phone.
How to adapt this template for your brand
- Pick a public-domain painting or stock image with a strong, readable expression or pose.
- Identify a universal moment your product creates, like waiting, unboxing or checking a notification.
- Write a bold label and a short first-person caption using current slang.
- Keep branding minimal: a small logo or a mention in the ad text only.
- Launch several captions on the same image and keep the one that earns the most shares.
Tips for apps & subscriptions ads on Meta
On Meta, run this on Instagram Feed and Facebook as an engagement or reach campaign and encourage tagging in the primary text. Memes perform best when they feel organic, so avoid heavy CTA buttons. On TikTok, recreate it as a slideshow or a slow zoom on the painting with a trending sound. Refresh the caption often, since meme fatigue sets in fast. Make sure any artwork used is public domain or licensed.
About this creative
This square creative shows a framed, 19th-century style oil painting hung on a textured grey wall. Inside the frame, two young women sit close together on porch steps beside white columns and a balustrade. One wears a lilac silk gown, the other dark green velvet, and both lean over a small book or letter with intense focus. Large white capitals across the top of the painting read 'Waiting for the ride', followed by a smaller caption: 'Me and my bestie, locked in, as the car gets closer.' The humour comes from the contrast between the formal, old-fashioned scene and the very modern habit of staring at a ride-hailing app as the car icon approaches. There is no logo or product shot, so it reads as a meme first and an ad second. That makes it highly shareable and suited to brand awareness rather than direct conversion.
Meta ad · 1200 × 1200 · Apps & Subscriptions
Ride App Meme Ad: Classic Painting Format
This meme ad places modern captions over a 19th-century style painting of two women reading together. The joke: they are actually watching the ride-hailing car creep closer on a phone. Use this classic painting meme format for apps and consumer brands that want shareable, humorous content rather than a hard sell.
Added
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Details
Ad copy
Primary text
That moment when the little car on the map is 2 minutes away 👀 Tag your ride-or-die bestie.
Description
Track your driver in real time
On-image text
WAITING FOR THE RIDE | Me and my bestie, locked in, as the car gets closer.
Headline ideas for this template
- 1When the driver is 1 minute away
- 2Watching the little car turn the wrong way
- 3Us refreshing the app every 3 seconds
- 4The final approach. We are ready.
- 5Pre-ride huddle, est. 1870
Meta image ad specs
| Placement | Ratio | Size (px) |
|---|---|---|
| Feed | 1:1 or 4:5 | 1080×1080 / 1080×1350 |
| Marketplace | 1:1 | 1200×1200 |
| Messenger inbox | 1:1 | 1200×1200 |
| Stories & Reels | 9:16 | 1080×1920 |
This template is 1:1. Request 4:5 or 9:16 to cover all placements.
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