Outdoor Advertisements

There are so many great billboards out there that I had a hard time choosing just 3 to write about! Billboard advertisements have a wide reach, and depending on the location, can have a high frequency. Let's say you take the same route to work every morning. This means you would pass the same billboard. And if there's traffic (rush hour perhaps?) you will be even more inclined to really understand the billboard message because you will have more time to look at the ad.

This first billboard is my favorite. It is an advertisement for BIC razors and shows a razor acting as a lawn mower. It really hits home for me because it took me a long long time to actually find a razor that I liked. This advertisement really makes BIC seem like the best because the "shaved" portion of the grass is perfectly straight with no nicks. If I saw this while driving on the highway it would definitely catch my attention, especially since the "shaved" grass is light colored.



This is an advertisement for Woodland Climbing Shoes. It uses a pun by having knots tied in the shoelaces, insinuating that both the shoes (and shoelaces) are strong since you can climb to the top. Since the rest of the advertisement is completely white, the shoelace dangling from the top really stands out. It will catch the attention of someone driving by on a highway, and it will make people focus 100% of their attention on the shoe. The problem with this is that if you don't really know about different shoe brands, and you're driving by quickly, your attention might only focus on the design of the shoe without actually knowing which brand it is.



This billboard shows the effects of super masking tape. It is three-dimensional because a roll of tape is actually sticking out of the middle of the billboard. The technique "show the effects" is used because it appears as though four pieces of tape on each of the corners is actually holding the billboard up. Obviously this is not true (a billboard is MUCH heavier than something tape can hold), but the exaggeration is beneficial and proves that the tape is stronger than most others. Obviously a normal brand of regular scotch tape wouldn't be able to hold up the billboard. Again, the issue of branding is a problem here. What is the brand of this particular strong tape? It is not really made clear, which can be problematic if there are multiple companies that produce this tape. That would mean this advertisement is promoting the product category rather than the product itself.




And an extra bonus, this is just brilliant and hilarious.

Visual Solutions

Samsung





This series of Samsung advertisements uses strong and great quality pictures as the main focus. This is a great technique, especially for this particular campaign since it is promoting cameras. By showing very famous and popular landmarks around the world (Statue of Liberty, the Sphinx, etc), and focusing on only the heads of these landmarks, it shows how great the Samsung camera is: "it can zoom really well, it can take pictures really clearly, and I know that because these landmarks look just like the way I see them in textbooks and from professional photographs." Also, I didn't actually notice this until looking at the advertisements a third time, but above each of the shots of the landmark, there are two fingers (as if someone is giving it bunny ears). Then, in the product shot on the bottom right corner, you see the "bunny ears" in the camera lens. Again this shows how the camera can really zoom in. This is a good advertisement because even without seeing all the parts (like me not noticing the bunny ears at first), the message is still strongly conveyed.


Mals Printing House



This advertisement for a printing house uses a humorous image. There is a man sitting in an intense tattoo parlor: on the walls there are pictures of skulls and Satan and other hardcore things. Then you see that the man looks horrified when he sees that the tattoo he just got on his back is a unicorn flying through a rainbow with tons of tiny hearts. The unicorn image contrasts with the masculine and intense images that are around the store, and the look of shock on the man's face is funny because he clearly didn't want that tattoo. In the bottom right corner there's just one little tag line that says "Avoid Disappointing Results." I'm not 100% sure what a "printing house" actually is, but from this advertisement I can see that the printing house is promising not to mess up an order like this tattoo parlor clearly did. It is effective because without many words, the person seeing the advertisement is forced to focus on the image, and because the image is funny and strong, the person seeing the advertisement knows what to expect from the company.

Raid



This advertisement for Raid Max spray has a striking (and disturbing) visual. I hate bugs so the advertisement kind of freaks me out, seeing as there are a ton of spiders forming the shape of a flashlight. However, someone like me who hates bugs might actually spend more time looking at this advertisement. The thought going through my head is "if this spray can kill all these bugs, let me have it!" There is a tiny tag line in a crack of the floor saying "One shadow they came to fear." This tagline explains the visual even further: the bugs are afraid of the spray and must shine a flashlight where the can's shadow would fall because they are so afraid of it and would rather not look at it. Obviously a fake flashlight can't get rid of a shadow, but the exaggeration shows how effective the Raid Max must be. Also, the product shot is taken a certain angle that really emphasizes the strength (by showing it really tall and almost as though if it were human it would be sticking out its chest) of the product. The visual would definitely capture the attention of someone who is having a bug problem or is interested in ways to kill the little creatures.

Creative Tactics

Ads of the World has so many great advertisements. I literally spent an hour just looking through them. Here are a few of the ones that really stuck out in my mind:

Storytelling





This series of advertisements for a Belgian newspaper tells a lot of stories. Protesters are being taken away by the police in all the pictures, and from the facial expressions and the brutality portrayed, I can only imagine what the people must have been going through. For example, the woman in one of the pictures is wearing a pink shirt that says “Women For Peace”. Her veins are popping and it looks like she’s screaming. It’s ironic that she’s rallying for peace and is being captured and forced away by police. In another one of the pictures, a man is forcefully being dragged by his arms. There’s a poster in the corner saying “Stop the…” (we can’t see the rest) which means that he was obviously fighting for something he believes in. Again, the viewers of the advertisement can try to imagine a whole story behind the picture. That’s why the tagline is so effective. It’s saying that instead of rallying and protesting and doing other dangerous things, the best way to share your opinion is to write to the newspaper.

Double Meaning




I interpreted the next two advertisements as having a double meaning. One shows watermelons in the shape of a bunch of grapes, and the other shows a lot of tomatoes in the shape of a raspberry. The advertisement is for a refrigerator that has a lot of space. By emphasizing the images on the advertisements (they are in the center with very little text, so your eye automatically jumps to the image), you can see that the fridge is big enough to fit everything. For example, it can fit grapes AND watermelons simultaneously. At the same time, the images are really appealing and make me want to go into my fridge and see what I have to eat! By playing the delicious fruit card, the advertisement is getting the viewers to think about food, and in turn, their refrigerator. That is why they have a double meaning: not only do the fruits literally have double meaning (they could be interpreted as either or), but the advertisement itself makes you think all about your fridge.

Disturbing Imagery



This advertisement has an interesting concept, but at the same time the image is a little disturbing. It is a llama made of clay, which looks a little too human-like. It looks as though the llama has human skin (very pale skin, but still human). The copy in the advertisement is written in the shape of two humps on the llama's back, which if taken literally, makes the clay figure a camel. Aside from the disturbing image of the animal, I like the humor and cleverness in the advertisement. Since chiropractors help ease back, neck, and other kinds of pain, the advertisement portrays the image that the chiropractor is good at his job by eliminating the animal’s humps. It’s even as if the animal changes from a camel to a llama. This ad would definitely catch someone’s attention, but I don’t know if it would make someone want to go see that specific doctor.

Cheers!
-Jen

First post

Hello all!

This is the first entry on my first advertising blog, which will hopefully be the first of many. I'm a senior Advertising major at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. I created this blog for my Portfolio class, but am looking forward to updating it. I'm excited to begin analyzing and critiquing ads, and especially to conceptualize and create my own advertisements. Check back here for some creativity, critiquing, and some of my own ideas.

-Jen