Print ads that are a cut above the rest

Creating a concept for print ads is challenging moreso than making TV commercials. It's all about successfully capturing the reader's attention at one glance, making them stay on your page a little longer than usual, and ultimately cramming their minds up with the ideas that the ad is trying to sell. For some, it may be as simple as translating their TV ad to print. The concept may already be in place but the challenge presents itself on how to best send the message off a magazine page.

Renzo Rosso, the genius behind the successful Italian clothing and lifestyle company, Diesel, shared the following on advertising concepts in an article with designboom:

"...There are dangers you risk in trying to always be innovative, and we are condemned to always do something new so it is easy to get to the point where nobody understands you anymore.

"In general, in the early 90s we were the first to use this type of message, now used by many other brands which have made it their own, and we were and are the creators of this type of message: that is, no more violence towards the final customer saying to buy this product or that brand, but rather involvement in the life-style, and if you like it perhaps you can buy those clothes. Giving the consumer the chance to choose something and not to consider him a robot condemned to respond to the advertising message."

While most companies go all out on creative concepts, some take advertising up a notch by trying to address global societal issues. Aldo, makers of fine leather shoes and accessories, spearheads YouthAIDS in an attempt to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS while Timberland, another footwear company specializing in hiking boots, aims to Make It Better for the environment and the community (click here for a close-up of the captions surrounding the boots).

As some do large-scale global missions, other print ads celebrate the individual, however different one person is from another. This takes us to hearing Kenneth Cole Reaction's standing question shown in the next ad that goes, "Is being different all we have in common?"

Asics also did some serious asking: What would you do if you couldn't run? Athletes replied. I tried coming up with a decent answer but got profound, instead, and a migraine. It's that unthinkable, personally.

On a similar note, Levis features an impairment that leaves me thankful I only have color blindness (I can only clearly see the number 25 of the six presented in this color blindness test. I could not, by the light of me, decipher any of the numbers AT ALL from the other images. At first, I thought this test was a hoax and that there were really no numbers. Asking friends to see the image only confirmed my fear of my greatest inability: to see true colors).

Cerveza San Miguel's ad immediately became my favorite (I have no idea if this company is in any way connected to Philippines' San Miguel Corp so don't ask me). Passion Beyond Reason could not have been conveyed in anything more effective as this here from a lager company that takes pride in the effort they put into producing quality beers. (This one in particular actually started the concept that became this article)

How could seemingly contradictory thoughts present a win-win end result to the consumer however which way they choose to stay connected? See Orange's approach on giving you insights via this minimalist-themed ad.

Lastly, here are ads from Infiniti's G Sedan and Coupe campaign.

Ever notice how the ads seem to have been scanned? Well, they were. By me personally. All in the name of wanting to celebrate the genius of the creative mind. Do note that the quality of the ads may dramatically differ from the one initially published in terms of color and contrast due to scanning. My apologies.

posted by Fritz @ 12:00 AM