There seems to be a lot of debate about how many advertisements people are exposed to over the course of a day. It’s not surprising– I’d expect that numbers vary widely depending on where you are, what you’re doing, and a whole host of other factors. So instead of talking about what that number might be, let’s just focus on the number 2, which just happens to coincide with the number of ads I want to talk about in this here post.
I commute every day using the New York City subway system. As a result, I see the same ads over and over again, and I have lots of time to contemplate them. Some of them are good, most of them are bad. I like to try to get into the heads of the ad executives who came up with the campaigns. This process usually results in me getting stuck on an important question: “What were they thinking?” What follows represents, in my opinion, the worst and the best, and is accompanied by what the ad execs might have been thinking when they came up with these ideas.
#1: The worst
What they were thinking: Sex sells? Of course this will get people to tune in to the new season of Project Runway.
What I’m thinking: You know a designer has given up when they send a model down the runway wearing next to nothing. I think we can extrapolate from there in trying to figure out what a mostly-naked Heidi Klum means when it comes to attitudes about the newest season of PR.
#2: The best (Which, I should add, is just one out of a series of similar statements.)
What they were thinking: How great would it be to get out of this Midtown office building, leave the subway behind, and spend two weeks on a beach somewhere?
What I’m thinking: How great would it be to get out of this Midtown office building, leave the subway behind, and spend two weeks on a beach somewhere?
What do you think they were thinking? And what do these ads make you think?
5 replies on “What Were They Thinking?”
The pic of Heidi Klum is horrid on so many levels. They might be trying to get more men to watch in the hopes they might actually get to see her naked.
I thought about that–maybe they were trying to trick men into thinking the show’s about something that it’s not? I honestly have no idea, but that ad is, to me, just a perfect representation of a missed opportunity. Advertising can be so clever and thought-provoking when it’s done well. In this case, it just comes off as a desperate, last-ditch effort.
It certainly reeks of desperation.
It also reeks of photoshop.
Yes, I had been wondering what happened to her left nipple.