You can trust your eyes. Usually. But marketing campaigns are turning our primary sense on its head. Take, for example, this bus stop in The Netherlands where taking a rest on a harmless-looking bench could get you a lot more than just a moment to hike up your tights and reapply lipgloss. See, this particular bench is actually a scale. And that big blue advertisement? Is actually the display for the scale, showing off your weight in big red numbers to any interested passerby. So what is this guerilla ad campaign promoting? A gym, of course! I’m thinking it would also be prudent to put business cards for local psychotherapists on the billboard as well, as this revisits the oft-debated question of does shaming people about their weight induce them to change their behavior for the better? Or does it just make them depressed?
But it’s not just fitness. As marketers get more creative and more desperate to get attention in our media-saturated world, the new ads range from amusing to witty to rude to downright frightening. Check out this collection and let me know what you think. Are you buying what they’re selling?
Powerhouse gyms has a whole series of musclemen/construction equipment. Best of both worlds, in my opinion!
I hate smoking. (Although let me clarify for the sake of harmony at future family reunions that I do not hate smokers.) My only question is: Can they be personalized?!?
This ad for a suicide hotline is very poignant and speaks for itself. Marketing at its best. Although the mother in me can’t help but think that any child tall enough to reach the cut out is gonna rip that woman right off the poster before you can yell “Not my child!” and walk the other way.
Back to the fitness industry again, here’s an ad encouraging people to “get up and run” although I must say I don’t really get it. I mean yeah, the butt’s a little dimply but isn’t everyone’s when they sit down?
This one makes me very very uncomfortable. Quite honestly I don’t think I could use this shopping cart. I already cry during St. Jude commercials! I’d never finish my shopping if I had to look down and see those big hungry eyes in my cart. Gah! I have to scroll down now. Can’t. Keep. Looking.
Again with the uncomfortable although this one ranges closer to the creepy end. If I walked by an elevator and saw fingers sticking out I think my heart would stop. Although it does get its point across – that Guantanamo bay needs to be shut down (which, hello, do they not pay attention to current politics?) – very well.
I dig this one. It reminds me of those cutouts at the fair where you stick your face in a hole and you are instantly transformed into some crazy cartoon character. Except in this one you’re transformed into a convict. I bet it makes it harder for guys to pick up women on subways.
Ewwwww! This is disgusting. And they’re selling snowboarding gear? Wha…??
I’m betting this little bid of advertising – for another gym, natch – actually makes it a little easier to pick up the ladies.
I love this ad. I want to find this ad – for Real Hip Hop – and sit on it and have someone take MY picture. Seriously – how funny is this?
I saved the worst for last. In my opinion, this image of a drowning child – while making an admittedly important point – is absolutely horrifying. I don’t think I could swim or let my children swim in a pool with Flat Stanley kicking off his mortal coil right under our feet. In fact, like the grocery cart one, I almost can’t even bear to look at it.
Anyone else horrified by the idea of sitting on an innocuous bench and having your weight broadcast to strangers? Love the idea of riding in an elevator bracketed by bloody meat cleavers? Ever wondered what you would look like with a ‘fro? How do you feel about this aggressive form of marketing?
I actually think those are really creative campaigns. I think the buttock one is creepy though!
I think somebody put a lot of thought into these. Very creative, though a lot of them are kinda scary. Especially the last one.
Although the dripping chopping knives are pretty bad too…
The hungry and drowning children scare me but I think such an ad does make its point and if I saw it it would make an impression on me.
Wow, a picture can really be worth a thousand words. Very creative, but some are pretty disturbing.
I like them, they can be very creative. However I understand how people can get offended.
Creative, but disturbing. “Does shaming people induce weight loss?” is a valid question. I have read articles suggesting things like paying more for medical insurance if you are overweight, etc. Smokers and obese people already pay more for life insurance and I read another article about Japan waist measuring at work. In the US, I think it would just create a spike in crash dieting and weight loss pill purchasing. Sure, some would eat better and exercise because they knew when they got to work they would be measured. More would continue their eating habits and just puke it all up in the company restroom before the “weigh in.”
No doubt advertising works. Why else would companies like Coca Cola and Budwiser pay $3 million dollars for 30 seconds of air time during the Super Bowl?
But some people will never change. I read a Washington Post article this morning about the AIDS crisis in the US. Now 3% of Wash DC is HIV positive and it is estimated that about 1/3 of the people who carry the virus don’t know it. (So add that to the percentage above.) That’s higher than West Africa and on par with Uganda and Kenya.
Yes, there are those who get this disease without any means to prevent it. (Paramedic gets open wound treating AIDS patient, etc.) But most get it through voluntary practices. How long have we been bombarded with information about how this disease is transmitted? Is there anyone over the age of 12 in this country who can honestly say they had never heard that having sex or using drugs can give you AIDS? Schools are handing out condoms for those who choose to have sex despite the risks. Hospitals are handing out clean needles. Yet the problem continues to snowball. I just don’t get it.
I do like these!
over the top (way) and yet if you dont take a risk in marketing as in life—-you may go by unnoticed.
Okay, none of these ads would work on me (I’ve seen the subway gym ad before, in person. It was cute, but I didn’t remember the gym’s name 5 minutes after I’d left that train).
Beyond that, the scale one is mean. I think I’d never join that gym. What about people with disabilities or pregnant women who now get to decide if they want strangers to know their weight or if they want to sit down? Also, I’m heavier than I look, so if I were sitting next to someone on a scale, one might assume that some of my weight was theirs (I’m assuming that more than one person can sit down).
And yeah, the two with the children really don’t help anything. Making me feel horrible about being able to afford things like food isn’t going to make me want to work with an organization that would do it (Although I’m looking at other organizations). And the drowning one probably scares more kids than parents.
The whole advertising industry has bothered me for years! I almost make it a point to never buy a product if the ads are forced on me. I think it takes talented people, and teaches them that lying is OK, like another field I won’t mention.
I realize that many of these ads are for something besides a product.
I think some are just bit too over the top. And sitting on a scale?!??! That’s just wrong. I mean, you’re tired and you want to sit down but then you are forced to announce to everyone around you how much you weigh – that could be very humiliating, depending on the person. I don’t like that one at all.
Hehe the dude on the bus made me giggle with holding the barbell.
I love analyzing these kinds of ads. I think it’s amazing how extreme we go just to make our point. While some of these are disturbing, I think that they’re also wonderful marketing strategies for getting the point across and making an impact on anyone who sees them.
I despise most ads. Although I do like the ‘fro (and would TOTALLY try to find it and have my picture taken, if I could!), but the others are just too much.
I understand shock value, but a picture of a drowning or starving child is not the best way to go, IMHO. (I’m already The Worrier Queen, I don’t need any more ammo!!!)
As for broadcasting my weight…WTF?!?!?!?!
(Also, shaming people into losing weight doesn’t work long-term. It tends to lead to binge eating.)
I like them, I think they’re creative. I usually don’t care much about brand or whatever when I shop or choose services, but there are times when I go out of my way to reward creativity. I think that makes me a little silly but I do it!
(though a side note, as a former lifeguard, I bet that pool is less safe as the lifeguards are used to just casually glancing over a floating body…)
There’s a similar ad campaign to the last one in the city that I live in. Showns a drowning child. And as someone whose 1yr old cousin drowned in the family pool when I was 16 (it was a total, total accident… his mother felt terrible, like we all did), I find that campaign hurtful. Even though it has been almost 10 years, I want to cry every time I see it. So while it may make the point, I think that the ad crosses all kinds of lines.
I would complain to the owners or managers of the premises about most of these. Particularly the child in the cart, the body in the pool, and the fingers in the elevator.
Yes, I realize that these are all important issues, but blasting us with in-your-face negative images only has the effect of annoying me.
I’m with dragonmama – I’d complain about some of these. Having said that, I like the ones that are what I consider “harmlessly creative.” The barbell or the ‘fro, or even the handcuffs on the chair. But if an ad makes me so upset that I want to throw up? Frankly, I make a mental note of the product and then AVOID it.
It’s like the PETA campaigns: I agree with their general principle, but hatehateHATE their methodologies. So, I refuse to donate money or time to their organization, EVEN THOUGH I agree with the prinicple. Does that make sense?
I’m with Marste on this one!
And I would leap off that bench in a heartbeat if it broadcast my weight – then, of course, I would be forced to beat it to death. Then I’d be in jail, which would lead me to gain even more weight because of all the starchy foods…
Sheesh. I’m so glad I live out here in the sticks where there are no bus stops with weight benches!!!
wow. That last one is chilling. I’m with you, i can’t bear the ads with hungry, hurt, or crying kids. I have to turn away.
The others are definitely creative, but some are borderline creepy.
I have never seen any of these–which again proves to me that I live in the ad-free boonies!
Wow…that last one kind of freaked me out…so did the knives. The others I thought were pretty creative and clever!! They sure leave an impression and would definitely get me thinking, which is probably the point. Don’t think I would sit on that bench though!
Loved this. Guerrilla marketing done well works and it doesn't necessarily need to be outdoor, it could just be an unconventional tone of voice. If a bank sent me a communication that was full of wit, I might just read it!