I stole that headline directly from Feeld’s LinkedIn post because what else can I write?
Anyway, I love this approach. It’s very much like that ad for the Bible App, with Satan giving it one-star, but this time, it’s, well, you know, real reviews.
It’s got to be the easiest (and cheapest) way to advertise what you’re about, who you’re for, and who you’re not for.
There’s an argument that any OOH should be like art. It should be a joy to look at, and something that genuinely enhances our day and public spaces. I fully subscribe to this and think that this campaign for British Airways does exactly that.
What works so well and makes them even more impactful than Windows, the similar BA campaign from Uncommon, is that it’s my point of view. It’s personal. The moment you break through the clouds and see your destination – that’s magic, and it’s exactly what Uncommon have captured.
These are things of beauty, and do exactly what OOH should do: Beautify our public spaces, resonate with people, and spark that thought that maybe you do deserve a holiday this year.
I love them all, but I’m particularly fond of the English countryside shot. As a Brit living abroad, I am extremely familiar with that view, and as soppy as it might sound, it is an absolute joy to see every single time I go back home.
Update! Mark Ritson has written a typically excellent piece on why these ads probably won’t work (sad face). He is, no doubt, right, and they probably should have doubled down on Windows, but I, for one, still think these are better looking.
I saw a post on everyone’s favourite social network, LinkedIn, about how people are hating on Benetton using AI in their latest campaign. And then I, inevitably, as someone who remembers the 90s loud and clear, thought of their advertising heyday. How the mighty have fallen.
Here’s the latest campaign, overly ecstatic faces and all.
But do you remember the old ads?
The ones that stopped you in your tracks (or from flipping over the page in whatever physical magazine you were reading)? The ones that made you feel physically or emotionally uncomfortable and made you question what the hell they were thinking but why are you feeling the way you feel? I do.
And I’ll tell you what, that AI garbage will be instantly forgotten. No stopping in your tracks. No pause in page-turning. No stopping the scroll.
It’s blink and you’ll miss it. It’s shitty product marketing vs balls-to-the-wall branding. It is, as my friend Kate so rightly said, “a bucket of slop that they’ve thrown at their visual heritage and the space they once stood so proudly in.”
