Do You Believe Advertising?
For many years now, I’ve noticed that when I look at an advertisement, be it in a magazine, a newspaper, or on a billboard, I often ignore the communication and am more inclined to critique it. Is the imagery suitable and well done? Is the copy pithy or funny enough? Is the layout busy or uncluttered?
Even when an ad works, in that I look at it, read it and get hooked by it, I still find myself saying, “niiice,” at the end of it, rather than thinking about the company, brand or offer being sold.
I tend to wonder who created the work, rather than allow any benefit to be given to the advertiser — “The XYZ ad was really nice. EFG did a really good job with it”.
How about you? Are we all ignoring the message in others work and being critics? Can we be sold to, since we know (or assume) that the advertiser had little to do with the ads we see?
Note to the nine people who read this blog: I’m smack in the middle of developing some work for a pitch, and have been pretty tied up with work. Because of this, I’m going to be a bit irregular about posting here.
2 Comments so far
Oh yes, I do the same thing. If I can figure out who created the ad, I go look at their website. I try to learn from the piece too, ask myself, What is effective about this design? What would I do better? I’m also a real stickler for good Photoshop work. I hate it when they mask someone into an environment and they don’t fit (lighting is going the wrong way, halos around the figure, no shadows from the figure).
Oh, and now you can make that 10 readers
Hello, number 10. Nice to have you hear! Thanks for posting.