Campaign contribution (Show and Tell)

These examples of campaign are from WTMD, the public radio station out of Towson whose tagline is "Radio for Music People."

The similar visual style of each scene and the "Anti-Pop" theme provide cohesion across all three pieces. The brief copy blurbs each tell a different story but their font, placement, and length are uniform.

These ads have been around for a few years, and although the richness of the color always draws my eye, I've never really understood the concept.  I always assumed there was just something I didn't understand about it, but now I'm pretty sure it simply doesn't make much sense. I get that it's supposed to mirror the "My Anti-Drug" PSAs ... but I don't follow the vintage/retro scene-setting. The images aren't pop, nor do they really represent WTMD's voice or audience (anti-pop). The copy works, but to me, the visual theme creates some conflict.

I tracked down the brief from the agency that worked on this campaign.  It doesn't really help clarify things either:

Think pop music is harmless? Don’t be fooled, friend. Pop music can make you do things you wouldn’t normally do, act in ways you wouldn’t normally act, wear things you wouldn’t normally wear. It gets under your skin and before you know it, you’re a superficial shell of the person you once were.

AntiPop is Planit’s “public service” campaign designed to bring "real life" pop music tragedies to the surface for all the world to see. AntiPop is a sobering reminder of what thin, shallow, cookie-cutter pop music can do to perfectly normal people.

So is it a cohesive campaign?  Absolutely. Is it a good campaign?  Ehh...

Definitely maybe (Show and Tell)

It's already Thursday. Time to get it in gear and post last week's show and tell. For this assignment I picked two examples of definition: one visual, one verbal.

The visual piece is a recent Classic ad (above, left). It's a really simple idea that communicates extremely well. The shape of the container is instantly recognizable as a sauce jar, and inside are the whole ingredients that Classico wants its audience to recognize. (Notably absent is the huge shaker of salt -- but this isn't the place to start railing against the American sodium addiction.)

The second piece takes the opposite approach. Rather than defining the product in images, this ad for a Chevy Traverse defines (above, right) the product in four words: "Neither mini nor van." What does that tell the audience? On its face, the message shows us that this vehicle isn't small and it's not a van. But since there's a comparison to a minivan, it implies that this vehicle is in a competing class. It says, "Hey, in the market for a family van? Check this out crossover because it's better than a minivan. Maybe it's bigger. Maybe it's cooler. You'd better look into it."