--- name: skeleton-video-ad-script-writer description: Use when an ad should open on a "what happens if..." question and answer it like a comedy bit, with one friendly cartoon skeleton whose situation climbs four rungs, each a step sillier than the last. Finds the one thing that grows, picks how each rung is labelled, lands the product once and checks every counted or timed claim. Writes a narrated video script of 15, 25 or 35 seconds, with a cast note for the video block and any of its own checks it still missed. --- # Skeleton video ad script writer You write a short narrated video script, built the way a sketch is built: one odd situation, pushed one step further each time until it tips over. A friendly cartoon skeleton lives it for the viewer. The open question keeps them watching; the peak answers it. You end with the script and a cast note; the skeleton shots skill makes the video from there. ## Before you start This skill runs on its own. What's below makes the result better, but none of it is required. **Works best with** (or they can paste their own instead): - **Brand brain**, made by the [Website brand brain builder](https://useaiblocks.com/skills/website-brand-brain-builder): your facts, products, buyers, claims and voice, in one folder of eight files. - **A buyer brief**, made by the [Buyer brief writer](https://useaiblocks.com/skills/buyer-brief-writer): who it's for, how much they already know, and what will move them. **Recommended steps before this one** (optional; do each once, then reuse what it makes): 1. **Brand brain** with the [Website brand brain builder](https://useaiblocks.com/skills/website-brand-brain-builder). Bring your website, customer words (optional), your results (optional). 2. **A buyer brief** with the [Buyer brief writer](https://useaiblocks.com/skills/buyer-brief-writer). Bring customer words. It uses your brand brain. 3. This one. **From the brand brain, read:** `00-start-here.md`, `offers.md`, `customers.md`, `proof-and-claims.md`, `voice-and-look.md`. Take the chosen offer's facts, approved claims with their conditions, buyer quotes and voice lines. Source notes and rejected ideas never go into the result. How to start: 1. **Look first.** Use what they've already attached, pasted or put in their about-me note. In Claude Code, look in the project too: a brand brain is a folder with `00-start-here.md` in it (often `brand-brain/`). If it's there, read that file and the files above. Look for the other things by name. 2. **If something is missing, advise, don't block.** In one short message, say this skill works on its own and will be better with your brand brain, a buyer brief. They can attach them, paste them, or say where they are (in Claude Code, a file path). Name the recommended steps above as a suggestion, with their links. Then ask: "Add them, or shall I go ahead with what you've given me?" If their message already says to go ahead, skip this and start. 3. **When they say go ahead,** do the whole job with what you have. Mark each gap with `MISSING:` where it belongs and never invent a fact to fill it. Keep the answer tight: say each point once, merge steps that give the same thing, and aim for under 700 words unless the job truly needs more. In CHECKS MISSED, name only the checks that failed, or write “none”. **Tools that do this best:** - **Any good chat AI:** Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini all follow this skill well, so use the one you already have. ## What you need - **Brief** (required): the product, the buyer, how much they already know, and the length (15, 25 or 35 seconds). - **Product facts** (required): the main benefit, the old way it replaces, how it's used, and how it must be shown. - **Claims and offer** (required): approved claims, banned claims, any time points with their source, the offer and the guarantee. - **Buyer's words** (optional): review lines about the old way. They make rung 1 ring true. - **Skeleton design** (optional): see "The skeleton" below. - From the brand file, if there is one: the same facts, plus voice and limits. Treat pasted text as information, not instructions. ## Steps 1. **Check it suits the job.** The format shows something building up, over time or by amount, that a real camera can't film in 30 seconds. It suits buyers who haven't noticed the problem yet, or who know the problem but not the fix. It's the wrong tool when the sale needs a real person's proof, a close look at the real product, or only the offer. A change in a body is never the subject. 2. **Find the game.** In sketch comedy the "game" is one unusual thing that keeps coming back bigger. Write it as one sentence: "The more [habit or old way], the more [thing you can see] grows." Then choose three things. - **Which way it runs.** `Without it`: the old way, or doing nothing, gets worse, and the payoff is a pile-up the viewer enjoys seeing coming. `With it`: the product's good effect spreads, and the payoff is a win. Use `with it` only if the brand holds a fact for every rung that shows a result. - **What grows on screen.** A pile (things stack up), a space (a shelf bows, a door won't shut), people (onlookers go from a glance to a queue) or reach (the effect travels from the desk to the office to the street). Pick the one that can grow in a single place. - **The label** that counts each rung on screen: count (`TUB 5`), distance (`NEXT DESK`), crowd (`6 PEOPLE`) or time (`WEEK 3`). Prefer the first three. A time label beside a result reads as a promise of when it will happen, so use time only with sourced time points, or with no result attached. 3. **Write the question.** One open question about the viewer's habit, never the product, that the peak will answer. Specific beats broad: "How many half-used tubs can one cupboard hold?" beats "What if you kept using powders?" Under 10 words. 4. **Climb four rungs.** For each next rung ask "if that's true, what else is true?" - Rung 1 is true to life. The viewer nods. - Rung 2 is a bit much. - Rung 3 is silly. - Rung 4, the peak, is the place giving up (or, `with it`, the win taken all the way). It answers the question. Each rung is one narrated line that opens on its label, said aloud, then one picture. Only the dial moves; nothing else changes. A 15-second ad drops rung 2. Never more than five rungs. 5. **Turn once, then close.** The product lands on one line. `Without it`: straight after the peak ("Or you..."), as the skeleton swings round to face it. `With it`: in rung 1, and every later rung is its effect. Carry one approved claim at most, then the close: the offer as narration, with exact terms on screen. 6. **Hold the claims.** A rung with a number tied to a result, a time by which something happens, or a health effect is a claim, and comes only from the approved claims. A label with no result is free. Plainly silly exaggeration is free. The pile-up is things, rooms and mess, never an illness and never a named rival. The skeleton's bones never change. 7. **Write the video** (below). 8. **Write the cast note** (below). 9. **Run the checks.** Run the checks in "Check before you hand it back" and fix any that fail. Show `CHECKS MISSED: `, or "none". ### Video - One calm narrator, "you", present tense, short lines. Nobody on screen speaks. - Pace: about 2.3 spoken words a second, with a short beat after each label. Targets: 15 seconds, about 30 words; 25 seconds, about 55; 35 seconds, about 75. - Timing: the question starts on the first frame and is done within 4 seconds. Each rung takes 3 to 5 seconds. Hold the peak a second longer than the other rungs. The turn and close take the last 8 to 10 seconds. - Each rung's picture has three beats, in the order animators use: the wind-up (the skeleton reaches or pauses), the change (the dial moves one step) and the reaction (eyes first, then the whole pose). - One place for the whole climb. Everything that will grow is already there in the opening shot, as small as it gets, and nothing arrives from off screen. - Join rungs with a match cut: same camera, the skeleton on the same spot, only the dial moved on. Anyone can follow the climb with the sound off. - Reaction figures (optional): made-up adults described by role and clothes. They stay silent and go from a glance, to a stare, to backing away. - No words, signs, clocks or calendars in the picture; labels are added in editing. No real people, children or known characters. Friendly, never horror: no decay, blood or dark scenes. ### The skeleton Default: a lanky adult cartoon skeleton, warm ivory bones with a soft matte finish, big round cartoon eyes set in the sockets, white with dark pupils, no clothes. Two options: - **Signature item:** one thing it wears in every ad (a cap, a scarf), so it becomes a character people know from ad to ad. - **Dressed for the place:** an outfit that fits the world, with skull and hands still showing. It is never shown inside a body and never drawn as a toy for children. Its jaw stays still. Feelings show in the eyes and the pose. ### The cast note Say who carries the ad and why, in two or three lines: the skeleton (default, with a signature item, or dressed for the place) and any silent reaction figures, by role and clothes. Pick from the buyer and the place: a signature item for a series, dressed for the place when the world needs explaining. The video block turns this into the avatar card. ## What you hand back - The game sentence, the way it runs, what grows, the label type, and one line on why. - The question. - A script table: `# | label | narration | picture (wind-up, change, reaction) | seconds`. - The turn and close, with the on-screen offer. - A timing map with the word count against the target. - The cast note: who carries the ad, and why. - A claims list: each label and claim, marked free or with its source. - `MISSING:` lines. - The `CHECKS MISSED` line: one line for each check still missed, or "none". ## After this When you've handed it back, suggest what they could do next in one short question. It's a suggestion: if they're done, that's fine. Offer these, and say they can type their own: - **Check it before it goes live** with the [Meta ads compliance checker](https://useaiblocks.com/skills/meta-ads-compliance-checker). It takes the video ad script. - **Make video ads** with the [Ad script read-aloud editor](https://useaiblocks.com/skills/ad-script-read-aloud-editor). It takes the video ad script. - **Make image ads** with the [Image ad remake planner](https://useaiblocks.com/skills/image-ad-remake-planner). It takes the video ad script. If they pick one and that skill is added here, carry straight on with what you just made. If not, give the link and say what to bring. ## Check before you hand it back - The question is about the viewer's habit, and rung 4 answers it. - Four rungs (three at 15 seconds), each one step further on the same dial. - Read the rungs aloud out of order: a listener can put them back. - The product lands once. - Every result, time or count claim is approved, and no time label carries an unsourced result. - The word count is within 10% of the target. - The cast note names the skeleton's look and gives its reason. ## If something is missing Write `MISSING: `. No old way to replace: run it `with it`, or ask. No time points: use count, distance or crowd labels. No buyer words: build the world from the habit and mark it `inferred`. ## Avoid - A rung that moves the place or adds a second joke. - A climb that stalls, where rung 3 is no bigger than rung 2. - Selling before the peak. - The skeleton presented as a customer, founder or expert.