By Robert Emslie
Typically our commutes are bad enough, although billboards, when clever, can sometimes provide a pleasant respite from the banality of traffic jams and sound walls. This, however, isn’t one of those opportunities.
These billboards aren’t actually aimed at us, but at the advertisers who have been mostly absent from our road-side view the past couple of years due to the crappy economy.
The campaign, created by ad agency Y&R Not Just Film for Interbest Outdoor, hold the audience hostage with nauseating pictures and extortionist copy. This kind of effort is provocative and edgy- two of advertising’s most hallowed buzz-words, but it can backfire as drivers, not wanting to be jarred by a 30-sheet nose pick start to block out the boards, even when normal advertisers return to the space.
If you are a company who has in the past utilized outdoor as part of your marketing mix, please, please, please consider revisiting that medium as early as possible. That is, unless your products are men’s underwear or have anything to do with the nose.
Source and images: [Trendhunter magazine]
Kamil Kaluski