About HAELM

HAELM started with a simple observation: most people can tell you whether an ad worked on them, but not why.

I read advertising through two lenses at once — the consumer lens, noticing what actually lands, and the brand lens, understanding the strategy behind it. HAELM is where I write those readings down: breaking apart real ads, campaign by campaign, to show the psychology and strategy hiding in plain sight.

The name comes from two ideas: the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the psychology of how people process persuasion, and the elm tree — roots, growth, resilience. HAELM decodes ads the way you’d read a root system: patiently, one layer at a time, to understand what’s actually holding everything up.

Right now, HAELM is home to the Decode series. More is coming as it’s ready.