Witness this overheard at a recent photo-shoot here in Kansas City. Our excellent client, a window company, allowed us to create some powerful advertising around the notion of “loving our windows.” The shot was of a guy with his arm lovingly draped around a double-hung window in a movie theater (this is advertising after all folks!). Then the Art Director uttered these immortal words: “Just pretend that you are trying to get to second base with the window”. Even Steven Spielberg has never given direction like this.
That is why advertising is miles ahead of any other industry. This kind of nonsense never happens in the plumbing or medical industries.
These marvelous moments are all around us should we care to listen and I believe it is our industry’s role in the cosmos to a) find these moments and b) mercilessly laugh at people, and then use these moments to create advertising.
I was once staying at a hotel in Orlando, where I was greeted with a banner in the lobby that read: “Welcome Hostage Negotiators of Southern Florida!”. I immediately did what any self-respecting creative would have done and asked for the t-shirt. I also wanted to find out what the conference was all about but they refused to come out (rim-shot).
If you think about it, advertising is all about juxtaposition. It boils down to the placement of a product in a slightly unexpected position, whether it is verbal or visual. This allows the viewer the chance to ‘see’ said product in a ‘new light’ and proclaim “Wow, I never saw toilet paper quite like that before, I must buy some now.”
Or, “My goodness, what a goofball to place the kitten in a microwave oven, I will immediately remember that brand of dental floss.”
It also allows the agency and clients the chance to say the most stunningly inane things in the name of getting to the essence of a product.
“We at Flubberstar are proud to be the number one supplier
of gerbils to the aeronautical industry…”
I live for these moments.
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