Strategically placed billboard ads- This one's got the X Factor!

I love seeing billboard ads which are strategically placed to utilise the surrounding ads/use the ads' content to make their ads more amusing, current and sometimes shocking. Not only does it make them noticable it makes them more amuzing and memorable- they seem to take over from the other ads and become like the star of the show. The ads around them seem less clever and pathetic in comparison. It's like they got upstaged, like they performed but then another ad came and did one better than them. In this sense, the latest milkshake ad from McDonalds certainly has the X factor.

It's probably the best one I've seen as it uses a very famous and contraversial campaign to promote the product. The loreal ads came under fire when cheryl was accused of using hair extentions to thicken her hair, therefore misleading consumers in the ads.

McDonalds claims their milkshakes are 'painfully thick', making fun of Cheryl Cole and suggesting that their milkshakes are extremely thick. I think it works becasue by making fun of the Loreal ads it portrays McDonalds as an honest brand that wouldn't advertise their products as something they are not. Although I think the mesage would have been simpler and more effective if it said 'genuinely thick' as 'painfully thick' is a bit confusing- im not sure exactly what they are trying to say- that Cheryl Cole is painfully thick to have done the ads perhaps? Not sure but I love it anyway.

Another great use for Velcro

When researching the topic of Velcro for my latest project, i came accross this video about an ad for Coca-cola. The ad used velcro to demonstrate the new bottle's extra grip. They were placed in bus shelters when people are likely to touch and lean on the ads. Cleverly running the ads in winter, meant that people's winter knit-wear stuck to the ads and grabbed their attention and comunicated the message with impact. I think it's a really clever idea, literally gripping the audience to demonstrate the grip of the bottles, and adds to the long list of uses for velcro.

How to get people to use stairs

When given the choice, people usually take the convenient option for anything. It's a natural thing to do and these days there's almost always a more convenient option to what we have used for decades or centuries without trouble. Stairs for example- when given the choice to use an escalator instead, naturally we choose the escalator, unless for some reason the stairs would be quicker. 

Perhaps if stairs were more fun, more people would choose to take the stairs? As this video demonstrates, a lot more people would. 

 

Maybe a bit of curiosity was also involved!

This was done an 'Initiative of Volkswagon' and I think, similarly to the Cadbury's Gorilla and Eyebrow ads, it is an advert for Volkswagon, without actually saying anything about Volkswagon. It just adds to their brand image. It makes you think that they are concerned with making everyday things more fun, making life more pleasurable and being creative. I think it was a brilliant idea and a very interesting observation of human behaviour.

Baggage Belt Ambient Advertising

I'm not wound up easily but if there's one thing that really really winds me up, it's when people crowd round the luggage belts at the aiport as soon as they get there and act crazy, standing too close to the belt like the world is going to end if they don't get their baggage as soon as it comes out! If they jsut stood back and relaxed it would come out just as quick! Anyway, my pet hate makes me particularly like this ad which uses a luggage belt to advertise the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino.

The strategy was based on a key insight, that travellers arriving at the airport welcome a bit of calm (unless they are the crazy ones). The belt was transformed into a swimming pool complete with swimmers, to represent the  tropical pool at the resort. Apparantly it totally changed the way people acted around the luggage belts which sounds like a great result to me. The only bad thing about it is the fact that a lot of it would be covered up when the luggage comes out.

Derren Brown- The Events Trailer

A few weeks ago I saw the first advert for Derren Brown's new series on CHANNEL 4. It instantly grabbed my attention just from the mirrored the text on the screen saying the name of the show. It intrigued me to keep watching and it turned out the whole advert was backwards. I thought it was a really clever teaser campaign as it makes you wonder what the advert is about/why it is backwards and you know there will probably be an advert to follow which explains it- which there was: the advert played forwards. I saw another follow up advert today in which Derren Brown claims he is going to predict the lottery live as one of 'The Events'- I didn't think that was such a clever advert- if he could really predict the lottery numbers wouldn't he have won the lottery by now? Hmm.

How will your eyes give you away exactly? New Think! UK Drug Driving Advert

I saw the new Think! Drug Driving advert the other day and I didn't get it. It could be because I don't drug drive or use the drugs that they are referring to but I tried to put myself in the place of a drug user and I really don't think this advert would make me 'think' much about drug driving. I know that drug driving is dangerous and illegal, but if I wasn't already sensible enough to never do it I don't think this advert would really put me off. The oversized eyes of the people in the car are unrealistic so it just makes me think, well, the police aren't really going to be able to see my eyes when I drive past them, as they don't really increase in size like that. Perhaps the tag line 'Your eyes will give you away' is referring to how the police can see the size of your pupils once they've actually pulled you over.  Or perhaps the whole thing is deisgned to cause paranoia in cannabis users, as they will hopefully be too paranoid to drive aftre seeing the ad. I think the whole angle of the advert is wrong though as it only warns you of how you could get caught. There's no mention of the real reason why you shouldn't drug drive, and why it's illegal: because you could kill someone! I just think the advert has no real impact apart from the kind of freaky-looking big eyes, but they just look like a bunch of bush babies in a car.

The first human synthesizer- Humanthesizer

Calvin Harris became the first musician to play his music on a human synthesizer, with his new single Ready for the Weekend. The instrument uses 15 bikini clad models painted with Bare Conductive, a new skin-safe ink which conducts electricity. When the performers touch the connection completes a circuit, triggering a sound.
The instrument also consists of 34 pads on the floor which have been painted with the conductive ink and are connected to a computer via some clever custom electronics. The performers stand on the pads, and touch hands to complete a circuit and trigger a sound. Different combinations of pads trigger the different sounds needed to play th track. The project is the result of a collaboration between Calvin Harris and masters students from the Royal College of Art's Industrial Design Engineering programme. Apart from being clever technology, it's also quite a clever bit of PR for the single. WIth nearly 500,000 views on youtube, it's got a lot of attention. Viewers who hear the tune during the video, who may not have heard the song before, might then want to hear the full song. I already loved the song but was intigued to compare the humanthesizer version to the original. 

Good thing clearex doesn't do herpes

This pimple climbing wall in Isreal is designed to get teenage boys thinking about spots in a different way. The brief was to expose teenagers to Clearex acne treatment during their summer break and this does the job, exposing itself to 8,000 teenagers a month. The climbing grips were placed in places on the face where acne would usually occur and the image is quite shocking or I might say, gross. It looks a little more like the boy missed his mouth when eating his cheerios for breakfast to me. It certainly made me think about how unnattractive and disctracting spots are though as you hardly notice the good looking airbrshed model underneath, and focus mainly on the "zits". If i was unfortunate enough to suffer from acne this ad would certainly make me think about getting some Clearex! 

Some ambient media to look down on...

These clever ambient ads I came across use the floor as their canvas and when looked down on, have a lot of impact. The idea of using people as the fleas in this ad for Frontline Flea and Tick Spray is absolutely genius and when busy with people and viewed from above like this, it would really bring the problem of fleas alive. It almost makes you're skin crawl. 

If you don't like heights, this ad for Swiss Skydive Parachute school could also make you're skin crawl. The elevator floor covering creates the illusion that you are hundreds of metres above a city scape in a glass bottomed elevator. If it happens to excite you on the other hand you may be enticed to attend the parachute school and experience the height for real, in the open air. Putting the audience in this position forces them to consider the possibility of the huge drop and whether it excites them or makes their stomach turn.

Wait Watching from Fitness First

You should never ask a lady how much she weighs. But in this clever ad Fitness First tells the ladies how much they weigh in a very frank and public manner (of course the gents can participate too).  This Rotterdam bus stop was set up to weigh people when they sit down and display it in bright LED lights before them and perhaps shocking and shaming them into joining Fitness First. While I think it's extremely clever and could be very persuasive- in presenting someone with the exact and honest reason why they should join Fitness First and get exercising, I think many people could also be insulted by it. Then again this could leave them feeling embarrassed about their weight and unable to forget about the ad all day. Then they'd probably join up. It's amazing what you can do with a bus stop these days.

http://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/ads