[Pix0r]

Hi all,

I was browsing through a surf mag when I came across this: http://b3design.ch/ad.jpg

I cant seem to decide how I feel about the ad. On the one hand I'm appaled by the complete disregard for any morals. I'm not a religious person but I do not believe in using religous ideals for the benefit of a corporate brand.

On the other hand I have to say that the ad does do it's job, it creats the right kind of image/style for such a brand...


What do you guys think?

[Ω]

There are places on this planet that have rocks that are submerged just slightly.....

If you had not made the comment I would have never have made the connection.

And look out for the big hair in the top left. It's a killer

[Pix0r]

lol @ the hair

Well I supose that some people will not make a connection, others will. Point is, the designer deffenatly had that intention...

[art_director]

Walking on water is an over used advertising approach. It's not new, it's not compelling and it does nothing for the brand, IMO. The photography is poor and their stylist phoned this one in.

All of this having been said, I dislike fashion advertising. It tends to try to be cool for cool sake and rarely does anything to build a brand. It's just attempting to project an image.

There have been exceptions in fashion advertising. Love 'em or hate 'em the following have tried and or succeeded in havaing a bigger voice:

~ Gap : use of celebrities (ie. the new Sarah Jessica Parker stuff hitting books now.)

~ United Colors of Benetton : Shock value w / juxtaposing imagery

~ Levis : BRILLIANT advertising in the UK, especially TV (ie. pharmacy condom ad, blind guy, etc.)

~ Lee Jeans : Buddy Lee campaign by Fallon

There are others I've forgotten. Feel free to ad to the list.

[art_director]

BTW : The Levis stuff in the UK was done by BBH's London office.

The Gap and Benetton work was done in-house.

[art_director]

To the original poster : Clearly this ad got you to stop. And, since you were reading the surf book, I suspect you're in the target market. I guess that might justify an argument that this ad worked. The question is whether you're going to buy the product or feel differently about the brand.

[siliconwarrior]

You're 'appalled by the complete disregard for any morals' in the advertising industry?

Are you new?

[EnVoy]

The horizon cutting his head in half is completely annoying. Bad execution of a good idea...


He's standing on rocks, by the way.

[dennisbolt]

I doubt that the majority of the people reading a surfing magazine will be AT ALL offended by this mediocre play on the overused cliche "walk on water" I even wonder if many people even know that it comes from the Bible. I could see if the guy was dressed like Jesus and was doing something offensive, that people would cry foul. I personally find it kinda cute, but not overly clever.

[Apfhex]

At first I was confused. I though that guy was supposed to be someone important that I didn't know. ^_^;;

If I saw that in a magazine I would not have thought about it at all. "Oh, a guy standing in water." It's not unlike many other ads out there. I don't tie "walking on water" to religion at all.

[Amorya]

Not a very good photoshop job... it just looks like the water is shallow.

The walking-on-water image doesn't offend me (as a Christian)... I can't say it'd make me go out and buy the product though, either. All in all, that ad seems fairly 'blah'.

4 out of 10 IMO.


Amorya

[andi*pandi]

I'm not even sure what the product is. Sunglasses? Shoes? Pants? Shirt? All of the above?

meh.

[godzookie2k]

I'm having trouble trying to think of *any* good walk on water ads that I've seen, but I don't think I have. Either way, I don't hate fashion ads being cool for cool's sake because thats pretty much what fashion is, companies like the gap and benneton are brands before style as opposed to someone like dkny or something who have a style to maintain, so I don't think its a surprise that companies like the gap have better branding.

(not sure if that makes sense)