Your phone constantly slides advertisements under your nose as you navigate social media. Most flash by without a second thought.
But now and then a pitch gives pause, such as this one, from Hotels.com. I had been looking at airline tickets — I must fly to Phoenix next month, lucky me — and so clearly the algorithm wanted me to stay somewhere while I was there.
Look at the ad. Does anything pop out at you? Do you see why I paused, thought, and took a picture?
The dirt. It's like somebody upended a flower pot. Or what seems at first like dirt. On second glance, maybe that's the pattern on some kind of skin rug. It's hard to tell.
The dirt. It's like somebody upended a flower pot. Or what seems at first like dirt. On second glance, maybe that's the pattern on some kind of skin rug. It's hard to tell.
Either way, not quite the pristine hotel room you typically see.
I have a theory, one I plan to elaborate on in the newspaper Friday: advertisers are deliberately putting intriguing aberrations into their static commercial photos. I've noticed more models with vitiligo, with dense patches of freckles. They not only expand the circle of the acceptable, but they also make the viewer pause, maybe even investigate and buy. Which is the entire point.
I have a theory, one I plan to elaborate on in the newspaper Friday: advertisers are deliberately putting intriguing aberrations into their static commercial photos. I've noticed more models with vitiligo, with dense patches of freckles. They not only expand the circle of the acceptable, but they also make the viewer pause, maybe even investigate and buy. Which is the entire point.
Or am I mistaken?
I went to Phoenix for the first time last year w my family. 103 all goddamn week. I said then that I'll never understand why a major city is there....right there.
ReplyDeleteThe development of the air conditioner.
DeleteAir conditioning and the weather in the winter.
DeleteI pay so little attention to those ads! Now I’m going to look a little deeper. Still don’t trust them enough to buy anything from them.
ReplyDeleteToo bad it’s no spring training season.
ReplyDeleteWhen MLB took over control of Minor League Baseball & eliminated 40+ teams, including all rookie league teams, part of the reason was that they could have rookie/development league teams play at their spring training facilities. So there are games that are scheduled to be played, we’ll see what happens.
DeleteArthur
Clearly it worked since you shared it with us.
ReplyDeleteI don't see many ads. Haven't for years. I guess I must have good ad blockers. What pisses me off are the ads on You Tube, They don't just appear between tunes, they pop up right in the middle of a song, until you hit the "skip" button. A royal PITA. .
ReplyDeleteI’m on the side of errors being purposeful. Like the backwards “R” in the toy store. They give pause and invite notice.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to subliminal messaging in ads? The kind where there were skulls or "private parts" in the icecubes of a drink, for example. We were supposed to be drawn to the ad without consciously realizing why.
ReplyDeleteDidn't notice until you asked but I was distracted by the magazine rack. Thinking about my cousin who represents KISS and remembering a young girl in speech class, Fall of 1968, speaking about vitiligo. If I had to wager, I'd say the dark brown table doesn't fit, has to be deliberate.
ReplyDeleteWinnie Harlow, the model on that cover with vitiligo needs to take that drug they're advertising on TV lately.
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