This afternoon, I was in the process of resizing an 8" x 10" ad down to a 7" x 5" post card. So I hastily mashed all the chunks and bits onto the smaller page and got ready to settle into the process of making it fit when I took a step back and thought about the certain style it already exuded. I mean, chaos is cutting edge in its own way isn't it? And isn't cutting edge what advertising is all about? You should make people react and think when they look at your ad. And if reading three overlapping blocks of text doesn't get the old noodle working, I don't know what does.
But there's so many ways to be cutting edge besides chaos. Like the Communication Arts journal we got in the mail yesterday. I opened to page two, and there in all its glory is a full page ad by Corel (You know, Corel Draw). The ad features a dark, sultry scene with a deep maroon love-seat. Splayed out upon the love-seat is a moistened lass in black lingerie who is the proud recipient of a well-toned male suitor whose face is quite neatly buried in her, um...lap. The tag reads "Creative director by day..." I especially enjoy the dot dot dot part. Sheesh. The whole point being that, ooh! I'm supposed to burn tire right over to the Corel website on the off chance I'll stumble across more steamy Harlequin vignettes. So there you have it. Riding the Trashy edge.
Then there's the Somethingorother Restaurant in town that uses Cutting Edge Annoyance factor to bury the airwaves and ingrain themselves in the besieged subconscious of their targets. Their spots feature 'Beuford the Bull Elk' talking in what I guess is supposed to be the gruff, gravelly voice of an actual elk speaking English. Beuford punctuates the high points about the restaurant by getting yeeha-excited and bugling various lengthy elk calls. It wins my Most Irritating Flagstaff Radio Commercials of the 21st Century Award hands-down. I can just picture the deliberations about each new ad: "I don't know Bob, the spot is only 30 seconds. Do you think we can afford to spend a total of 15 seconds on elk bugles?" "Dadgummit Mike, how many times I gotta tellya the local hunters just eat that stuff up, and it bugs the livin crud out of everybody else, so it's win-win no matter what!"
But then there's the good stuff. Cutting Edge Funny. Like the Kohler commercial that shows a husband and wife coming home from work. He's walking, she's driving. They catch sight of each other and the race is on. She's careening down the streets; he's jumping fences and short cutting through yards. The entire time, they're ripping off various articles of clothing. They both reach the house at the same time, but the husband gains the edge as his wife, finally down to her last few undergarments, takes a bad turn, slips, and does a full-body wipeout on the lawn. (The lady who pulled that stunt deserves an award, btw.) The final scene shows the wife, key in hand, peering through the chained door and crying out as her husband basks in the glory of the Kohler shower experience. I laugh silly every time I see that commercial. If I thought our shower and pocketbook could stand the strain, I'd shop Kohler first, just because of the enjoyment that ad has given me.
Yikes. I gotta go.
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