What's the Deal with Advertising These Days

Photo credit: 604Photos on Flickr

Real estate blogger Matthew Collinge first brought this ad (left) to my attention. He asked on his blog, “what is this picture selling?”

As Matthew points out in his post, the photo is an ad for a development in Surrey.

I’ve noticed this a lot around town lately. The seemingly totally unrelated advertisements that don’t even feature the product they’re selling. Must be a new trend.

Here’s an add for Aldo, the shoe store (right) that you can find on bus stops downtown. It seems they’re selling the fun and playful lifestyle more than shoes although if you didn’t know what an “Aldo” was it could even be for cosmetics, clothing, some type of pill that makes you dance and be happy or a condo in Yaletown.

On that note, back to the real estate…

There’s a development on Davie and Howe called “Alto“, which boasts roomy 10 foot ceilings and a comfy downtown location. On the main Davie street-facing sign there’s a photo of a dog chasing a ball. What that has to do with the condos is beyond me. Better yet, on their website they have a photo of some of the promo buttons.

Again, these don’t quite get me thinking real estate. I suppose the idea is to get your attention and make you visit the website.

I remember in high school for Student Council elections one candidate’s campaign included a huge hand-painted sign hanging over the main stairwell. In big bold letters it said SEX and below it in fine print it said, “now that I have your attention, vote so-and-so for Student Council.”

I admit that I love a clever ad campaign (diamond Shreddies anyone?) as just yesterday I Twittered about the E-trade baby and the clown version of that series of commercials. At least we know what he’s selling eh.

Am I requesting that all ads be literal? Not really, but however witty and clever I think sometimes the silliness just gets taken a little too far. Do people like not knowing what the product is about when they see an ad? Does a photo of a woman in a bathing suit floating in a pool of tranquil water make you want a buy a home? I guess so, I mean at least the bloggers are talking about it so if the goal was to create a buzz in that manner, it’s working.