Push It to the Limit

My favorite ads are often those that are the perfect balance between simplicity and innovation. When an ad catches the viewer's attention with something unexpected and then relays its message within seconds thanks to clear and concise imagery or copy, it really sticks in the viewer's memory. And now, when advertisements are literally everywhere, people are more and more inclined to ignore them. TV ads can be fast-forwarded. Print ads can be tuned out and grazed over. Internet ads can be blocked completely. In order for a brand's message to be received and internalized, it really has to shock the viewer. The success of an ad can be measured by whether or not it makes a viewer do a double-take.

Many innovative ads today are considered innovative because they are interactive. They encourage the viewer to take an active role in promoting the brand. Over the last few years, social networking has become the main source of innovative advertising. Oreo is a great example of this. Oreo created a number of user-based "competitions" between fans of the cookie and fans of the creme, but one that is truly inspiring (and my favorite campaign of the year) is their Super Bowl 2013 Instagram campaign. On Super Bowl Sunday, they had Instagram users tag photos with #cookiethis or #cremethis, and then had sculptors create the users' photos out of either Oreo creme filling or cookie crumbs. (Here is a link to Wieden + Kennedy's blog about this campaign. It is absolutely worth the read if you have a few minutes.)

Most are done on social networking, as seen above, but I think some of the coolest boundary-pushing ads are the ones that make viewers stop what they're doing while in public and take a moment to interact with the ad. That's a whole new level of "receiving a message." I especially like this campaign against domestic violence, which uses facial recognition to change what's on the screen based on whether someone is looking at it. It makes the viewer stop, take a second look, and interact.

Still, all that being said, I don't think boundaries need to be pushed so far to get that double-take effect. I recently drove down from San Jose to my father's house in Los Angeles. On the highway, I saw at least ten McDonald's trucks, all of which were plastered with images of McDonald's foods being "blown back" by the truck's 60-mile-an-hour speed.

These ads do everything I love: they have a simple, concise message, while catching the viewer's attention with something unexpected. Advertising on the side of a truck is by no means new or innovative, but it was the first time I looked at a truck and thought, "heh, that's clever." I think pushing boundaries can mean more than just doing something wacky to get viewer attention. It can also mean that something as boring as truck ads can be made interesting with a little out-of-the-box thinking. 

That's ultimately what I think is important about innovative advertising: you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You just have to make the wheel interesting again.

-Saige