Monday Rant #5 - Same ad done 3 times
How does this end up in the Communication Arts Annual? Isn’t there some sort of a filtering device that prevents god-awful ads from getting it past the presses? Isn’t there a level of standards present over at CA headquarters? Obviously not.
Firstly, I am a big hater of one-ad-done-three-ways campaigns. But this campaign is even worse because it’s the same damn image shown three times to boot. Is there a reason why this isn’t a one-off? Did the good people at Johnson & Johnson feel the need to pay 3 times the amount in production costs than were necessary? Did the good people at Johnson & Johnson just recently have frontal-lobe lobotomies? No comment.
Any guess as to what the concept of this campaign is? Not unless you read the explanation provided. It’s great how they’re so cryptic so that nobody can figure it out. I guess they took a page right out of the New York Time’s Crossword playbook. Great job McCann-Erickson Mumbai.
And I wouldn’t be coming down so hard if it was a campaign for a bank or something. But there are so many creative possibilities for a client like Band-Aid. I am creaming in my pants as we speak just thinking about it.
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November 22nd, 2005 at 4:56 am
So what’s the concept?
November 22nd, 2005 at 6:13 am
But they aren’t the same! The dots have different sizes!
I don’t get them. An ad shouldn’t make me feel stupid. They aren’t very asthetically pleasing either. In fact, they’re ugly.
November 22nd, 2005 at 6:21 am
I don´t get it either. Sucks feeling stoopid, don´t you think?
November 22nd, 2005 at 7:12 am
If it didn’t appear in CA, would we have known it was an ad?
It’s a sad day.
November 22nd, 2005 at 7:34 am
Are those dots bacteria or something?
November 22nd, 2005 at 9:17 am
Hmmm, since the background and the Bandaid have the same texture in each ad execution, maybe they’re trying to say Bandaids conform to all types of skin. (I know, I know, I’m digging here folks.) Jesus, these ads blow stinky chunks.
November 22nd, 2005 at 11:36 am
It’s a autostereogram. Unfortunately the the resolution is such that it’s not being picked up by the “unfocusing” of the eyes.
November 22nd, 2005 at 1:18 pm
no, it’s not a ‘magic eye’ gimmick. i originally thought that too. nearly ruined my eyes.
the blue areas (the background) is made up of little octopus’s (octopi?), sea horses and fish (a differernt animal in each ad). and the tan areas are little scorpions, lizards and something else (i can’t remember the third one).
the concept is that the band-aid remains dry while the surrounding areas are wet.
the pics that i put up are pretty much the same size as shown in the annual. i find it way too cryptic.
even if these were billboard sized, you would still have to be really close to make out the small images (and even then the concept is unclear). that assumes too much commitment on the part of the viewer. a regular viewer isn’t going to invest the time to go up close to try and figure it out.
i give it two thumbs up…johnson & johnson’s ass — way up.
November 22nd, 2005 at 2:02 pm
Wow. As my friend Jim Gavaventi once said, that’s a long way to go for a roast beef sandwich. (Copyright, Gavaventi, Inc. 1992)
November 23rd, 2005 at 10:57 am
“that’s a long way to go for a roast beef sandwich.”
that’s an awesome quote. i’m going to steal it.
screw the copyright.
November 24th, 2005 at 4:27 am
Has anyone seen the Channel 11 Campaign? I feel the same about that campaign too. I wonder what your views are?
May 4th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
It’s one of those campaigns done for the shows. I live in Mumbai and I have never seen it any any newspaper, magazine or outdoor site.