Advertising is, if you ask me, an art unto itself. I can appreciate an ad that breaks out of the confines we usually apply to advertising messages, and if they’re done well they can be extremely effective.

Pictured below are two examples of an ingenious poster campaign by MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). The text on the posers read; “If you don’t stop your friends from drunk driving, something else will.”

Sony’s Bravia TV has been advertised in some very creative ways but these 4 optical illusion ads make me feel a little woozy.

If you haven’t seen the ‘colored balls’ TV ad for the Bravia shot in San Francisco then may I suggest you check it out. The 250,000 multicolored balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco is, in my opinion, one of the most visually stunning ads I’ve seen in a long time. The beautifully fitting music accompanying the ad is José González’s cover of ‘Heartbeats’ by Swedish band ‘The Knife’.

A UK soft drink maker spoofed the ad wonderfully just a few weeks after the Sony ad first aired.

Sony’s recent TV ad shows color exploding in Glasgow. The cleverly filmed commercial essential sets of a 60 second firework display where the explosions aren’t fireworks, but instead are explosions of paint.

With gas in the UK costing anywhere between eight to twelve dollars a gallon it’s hard to understand why anyone would choose to drive an SUV, but they do. This British commercial asks a simple question. What does your car say about you?

According to British newspaper, The Independent, one out of every seven cars sold in London is a 4×4 off-road vehicle, and that number looks set to rise as the 4×4 is the most desired vehicle of status-conscious parents who are more likely to use the vehicle for a school run rather than a off-road adventure.

Greenpeace believe that parents who drive 4x4s for the “safety” of their children are contributing to the likelihood that those children will face a dire global emergency while they are in their twenties.

Personally I would like to see SUV’s and other similar gas guzzlers hit particularly hard by taxes and higher rates on roads like the M6 toll. Inner city parking lots could also impose height restrictions making it difficult to park one of these so called ‘Chelsea tractors.’ Clearly the only way to stem the desire for SUV’s is to start making life difficult for people who choose to buy one.

According to some reports the UK government may well be on the verge of introducing a raft of eco-taxes that are sure to be unpopular with a public that are still largely unconverned about the effects of climate change. However the taxes will hit owners of SUV’s with road tax being trebled from the annual figure of £210 ($397.23) to £630 ($1,153.87). As yet similar tactics do not seem to be on the cards for driver of SUV’s in the United States, the worlds biggest market for such vehicles.

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What does your car say about you?
About ‘Gaz Guzzler’
Offroad cars, Onroad menace
Baby on board
SUV’s are spreading
Stop Urban 4×4’s
Print spoof parking tickets (UK)

The Republican party is out to remind people in the ‘home of the brave’ that they need to be afraid of terrorists and therefore vote Republican in the upcoming mid-terms. A new TV ad shows al-Qaeda leaders with captions of threatening statements while the sound of a ticking time bomb plays in the background gradually getting loader.

In itself this isn’t really that noteworthy. Scared people are easy to control and therefore it’s hardly surprising that the Republicans are looking to remind people they need to be afraid (for afraid read vigilant). But my friend Christine in Oregon points out something funny about the ad in a post she recently made on her Xanga. The TV ad is concluded with the statement which could be viewed in a rather unfortunate manner for the Republicans behind the ad.

“The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.”

Well if the republicans can admit that, who am I to argue with them.

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Christine’s post.
BBC news story about the ad

Each and every single day we are bombarded by an almost uncountable number of advertisements be that on TV, posters, magazines, billboards or wherever, ads are everywhere. But while we pay little attention to many of them (though this doesn’t negate their actual power or effect) there are a few that really jump out at you.

I’ve always had an interest in the art of advertising, ever since I was a young boy when I would draw ads myself, or design record covers for an imaginary band called ‘The Mad Hatters’. The art of truly engaging advertising has never been lost on me. I like things that stop you and make you think, and that is what the best kind of advertising does in my opinion.

The picture above appeared in Japan and had a tag-line “Africa could use fewer guns and more food.”

Appealing to our humor and connecting with everyones ability to forget things, the two ads above stopped me cause I was puzzled as to what a business would have such an odd name. The penny dropped when I read the strap-line.

“A book will never let you down” explains a Booksplus ad. The right hand page of the pictured book is displaying the words “This page cannot be displayed” in the style of a page that anyone who has used the internet will have seen enough to relate with how frustrating that can be. The idea point is illustrated very well. Come buy a book made of paper that doesn’t require power and can be taken anywhere. Clever stuff.

The two ads above are really striking and beautifully subtle in communicating a powerful message. state on the strap-line “It’s not always obvious who needs our help.”

Above: I’m not entirely sure where these signs were placed, but they are subtle in making the point that it’s not convenient to have a disability. I once knew a disabled person who would carry large stickers that he would paste onto the window of anyone who was not disabled and parked in a disabled parking space. The sticker, which would be very time consuming to remove, read “You like my parking space, but would you like my disability?”

Below: Imaginative advertising from the BBC in America. The poster wraps around a wall and shows a picture that see from one side might communicate one impression, but a completely different impression from another, it’s only when you step back from the corner and see the complete picture do you see the entire scene without distortion. “See both sides of the story” reads the text across the picture, and the point should be obvious.

Maybe this is British humor, but it certainly made me laugh. Gets the point across well though I think. It’s currently doing the rounds on TV and in the movies here in the UK.

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