Totally…Totes Mcgotes (Assignment 4) September 9, 2009

What makes an ad successful?

I think that what makes an ad really successful is whether or not you are drawn to it.  Does your eye immediatly go to it and wonder what is going on.  A good ad should be simple and easy to figure out yet creative and new, or it should be something that takes people awhile to figure out but then it really sticks with them.  A good ad should be dynamic in creative elements and really sell the idea in a memorable way.

These two ads for the condomshop.com I liked because I think they are  successful ads.  Your eye is immediately drawn to it, trying to figure out what is going on.  Once you get what the advertisement is for it is fairly self explanatory what the message is that is being expressed.  The ad is stating, in a creative and visually funny way that having sex with out protection is extremely dangerous and stupid.  It would be ridiculous and dangerous for a person to go fight in war naked or put out a fire naked, you would get really hurt.  Having unprotected sex is the exact same thing, you will get hurt.

I am only critiquing the first ad, I just included the second one because I also thought it was funny.  The focal point in the ad I am analyzing is obviously the naked man, you can’t help but notice him, especially when he has fully covered people on either side of him, secondary emphasis is put on the fire although it is bigger and brighter.  The balance is uneven because you have the bright heavy fire on one side and the feel is different on the other.  The only color in this ad is the fire and the companies logo, everything else is neutral, doing this creates a visual pop of the ad and the fire without taking away from the man in the middle.  There isn’t really any sort of harmony in this ad but I think that is kind of the point.  The man in the middle isn’t supposed to belong here and that is why you take notice of the ad.  I think rhythm can be seen in this ad not in a literal sense but more in how a certain element causes your eye to go towards the focal point.  The fire in the ad starts out really low and then starts to curve up at the end and smoke across the top.  Something about the curving of the flames and the smoke billowing at the top causes my eye to be dragged back to the naked man.  I don’t know that this is necessarily and ad that an information flow, it is kind of right there.  You are led through the ad with the men in the suits and the curving fire that points to the naked man but other than that I think the information presented is pretty straight forward which makes it a successful ad.

Advertisement