large, black & white, funny and sexy
Like most people, we at Boat Global HQ typically while away the chilly winter evenings with a nice Pinot Noir and amusing ourselves with old social psychology test papers.
The other evening one multiple choice question caught our eye...
Advertisements that are _____ are more likely to gain the attention of the consumer.a. are large
b. are black and white rather than colour
c. avoid humour
d. avoid sex
We were pretty certain that we tend to notice things that are funny and/or sexy, bold black and white can have impact however so does bright primary colour so answer a) are large, felt correct.
We were right.
But what if an advertisement was large, black and white, funny and sexy?
That would seem to be a winning combination, for sure.
Anyway, I went for breakfast this morning with a fellow planning chap.
He works between Melb and Sydney so flies a lot.
You'll remember how this blog has become a big advocate of OOH in recent years, when it is well done?
So we were discussing some of these outdoor campaigns that we had admired.
Obviously the famous Bonds 'BOOBS' poster came up.
Large, black and white, funny and sexy.
Perhaps the most 'pure' a piece of pure brand recognition advertising since the first 'fcuk advertising' billboards in the late 90's.
In case you've not been following our current infatuation with Gigerenzer then a 'recognition heuristic' can be described as a rule of thumb by which recognised objects will be chosen over unrecognised ones, regardless of any other available relevant information.
What makes 'Boobs' and 'fcuk' even more remarkable is that both in campaigns the singe creative device was simple brand name recognition, yet neither actually used the brand name, by name.
Anyway, my planning friend told me that taxi drivers had mentioned something to him.
There was a particular billboard near either Sydney or Melbourne airport (cant remember which).
As the cab approached the area the taxi drivers would remark that the traffic tended to be slower in that area at the moment.
'Was there roadworks or something?'
No.
The traffic always slowed because the people in cars wanted to get a better look at the 'BOOBS' billboard.
