Is This Real Life?

My teacher who was just at SXSW is now back and had many stories to share with us. One of the topics that really caught my interest was the advertising campaign for Ray-ban sunglasses. Their new campaign is "Never Hide." Now, when we see people in advertising campaigns, they can be discouraging and make us not want to buy the product. Why? Because we know that when we drink the beer, there won't be seven blond girls in belly-shirts at our front door; or if we use the deodorant, we aren't going to have perfectly shaped bodies with sweat dripping down our 6-packs. However, Ray-ban still covered walls with their ads looking like this:

 

What does this ad say? We are fun. We like to party. We are normal people. (We just have huge tomato-fights in an alley by a dumpster).

At SXSW, Ray-ban had people running down the streets with water guns, just like the ones seen in their ads. Now, my teacher was, and still is, kind of creeped out by this. I mean, it is kind of scary to think if that is the future of our advertising. You see people with sweet sunglasses on, running down the streets soaking everyone with water guns. Accident? No. Advertising. Real. Live. Advertising. What if next, it's a car accident that happens right in the street that you're walking down. Is it real life? Or is it all set up as an advertisement? Are the lines of real life and advertising going to become blurred? 

I don't see it going as far as a car accident. At least not yet. Hopefully. But I think that if you can get your point across and raise awareness for you brand off of the billboards and in front of people's faces, then go for it. 

It's like Red Bull. If you see a crushed can on the ground, it is usually showing the Red Bull logo. Because they believe in garbage advertising.

What would grab your attention more ... a billboard? Garbage on the sidewalk? Getting soaked by a random squirt gun? If it's right in front of your face, you aren't going to be able to turn away immediately. With a billboard, you have a choice as to whether you look at it or not. When you are getting soaked by a squirt gun, you really have no control of the situation ... until you run.

peace and love.

kails.