Creative Advertisement

Creative Ads.

Well, I not a kind of a person who is creative or who is interested in any genre of advertisements. I only get things that I want to get. TV ads never played a big role of convincing me to buy a particular item in my life. However, as I was surfing through the internet this other day, I found this interesting websites which displayed thirteen most interesting and creative advertisements, according to the opinion of the author. And the advertisements that the author gathered surprised me. Of course I still was not convinced purchase those items or services. What surprised my from those advertisements was people’s creativity. What is the limit of people’s creativity?
Here is one of the advertisements that popped out of other advertisements. This is advertisement that was proposed by Denver Water. It somewhat looks incomplete advertisement or completed without any effort, right? People also might be able to think that the company only used the portion of advertisement board. But, as soon as anyone reads that what that advertisement actually says, the message of this whole advertisement would be delivered powerfully and quickly. It says “USE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED” –Denver Water-. Yeah, this is pretty self-explanatory. City of Denver tried to persuade residents to save water and use it wisely. Even though amount of the water that are used by consumers are reflected through their water bills, Denver Water is emphasizing that an excess usage of water is pointless and waster of natural resource. This advertisement actually depicted whole concept of “saving water” into one picture. As large proportion of this English class is focused on the concept of arguments, I think an argument can be brought up against this advertisement. Denver Water could have used the whole advertisement board and enlarged the text, so people in much more distances also can see the message. Instead, Denver Water chose to impact a smaller area of people with definite effect than to impact a larger area of people with lesser effect.

Here is another example of advertisement that manipulated the usage of usual advertisement board. This also is pretty much a self-explanatory advertisement as soon as you notice what is this advertisement is for. I mean, if advertisement is not self-explanatory, what is the purpose of it. I think these creative advertisements actually draw attention by unusual depiction, on top of being self-explanatory. Such creative advertisements are favorable in this society by many companies because it not only draws attention of the consumers but also persuade them to purchase this product, often through sarcastic depiction. In this toothpaste advertisement, it is obvious that it builds strong teeth, really strong teeth. This toothpaste model probably acquired those terrifying teeth strength after using “Formula” toothpaste. This advertisement got inside me really fast and well. If I see any of the “Formula” toothpaste in stores, that advertisement is probably come up in my head and I know for sure that “Formula” toothpaste is for teeth strengthening. Creativity is really an important aspect of marketing system in this society.

This example is really also clever. This one is not on a huge advertisement board where you can only usually see it during the drive in highways. This advertisement is on the street, actually ON THE street. This is a common cross walk which hundreds of people use it every day to across a street. These cross walks probably was painted long time I go as far as decades ago. Over long period of usage, everything get old- including the cross walk. If you still did not notice (it is really hard not to notice it) one stripe of this cross walk is really clean, just like it was painted few days ago. It was not the city or the government who repainted that stripe of the cross walks; it was Mr. Clean! This advertisement emphasizes how Mr. Clean can whiten any old, dirty surfaces. The stripe with Mr. Clean stands out so clearly from other stripes. This kind of advertisement definitely draws attention. The real genius of this advertisement is how Mr. Clean only “whitened” one of the stripes. It is not that Mr. Clean was lazy. Mr. Clean used marketing strategy. Mr. Clean is, too, profit seeking company and I think Mr. Clean only cleaned one of the stripes to provide people with sample. By showing tiny sample of their product, Mr. Clean can actually convince consumers to purchase their product, thus profiting from them. I think these kinds of advertisements have some limits, though. First, it is on the cross walk, so people other than who actually walks on the cross walk and not jay-walk or drive cannot see this advertisement. Also this product is household item. Most likely moms would be attracted to such powerful cleaning detergent. This advertisement, then, might be only effective in an area where moms prefer to walk rather than drive and who are willing to keep the house clean.

This advertisement is very similar to the first example. The Eskom electricity company is insisting people to save the energy. Energy required carbon fuels and excess use of energy is harmful to the environment. Out of this huge advertisement board, Eskom Electricity Company also decided to create picture slash word message. By only using one fourth of the light to shine upon the message, the advertisement is showing the audiences example of saving electricity. If all fours lights were to be turned on, the text could have been larger. Instead, Eskom decided to make a meaning message that can give a creative memory to whoever sees this advertisement.

As I said in the beginning, I am not creative or marketing kind of person. However, these creativities of some marketers are fantastic. It might look simple or easy to think of. The best advertisement, in my opinion, are ones that when people who does not even know what the product is about understands the message and are convinced to but that particular product. Though I am very impressed with these advertisements, I am still not convinced to save water and electricity, or to buy “Formula” and Mr. Clean. I just buy and do what I want to buy and do.


Citation of Pictures of all four pictures: http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2008/06/04/14-creative-advertisements-part-2/