Chapter 5 Comments

Hadrian's Wall's ad campaign for the Illinois Department of Public Health (page 91) is a fantastic example of stepping outside the bounds of traditional ad placement to create a more effective campaign. The nature of the ads themselves are based on strong visual imagery combined with bold, straightforward taglines to tell the public about the dangers of smoking and to illustrate what will happen if you don't quit. "Hearse" uses a wrapping graphic to transform the side of a bus into a giant hearse displaying the text "Today, 52 people in Illinois will die from smoking." with information for a quit smoking hotline listed below. This ad is very effective because the sheer size of the graphic immediately draws attention to the ad which would allow for far more people to focus on it and understand the message behind it. "Lungs" goes even bigger in terms of scale with two full graphics wrapping around adjacent train cars on the CTA. One train car shows the texture of a cancerous lung full of tar while the other shows a clean, healthy lung. The copy states which is which and once again gives information on how to start quitting cigarettes via a hotline. The placement of these ads is what makes them so effective because their size demands attention and their placement on public transit allows the message to reach a huge amount of people in Chicago because public transit is an everyday experience for most Chicagoans.

For my provided images (posted below) I chose to focus on another ad campaign that utilizes wrapping graphics on public transit. These ads are from 2009 and were created as part of Pepsi's Refresh Everything campaign. These Pespi ads rely on some of the ideas that fueled the Anti-Smoking campaign discussed above in the sense that both used wrapping graphics on public transit as a way to not only guarantee high levels of exposure but also to dwarf any other advertising competing with it. I find these Pespi ads almost more effective in that sense because the bright reds and blues present in the ads grab even more attention than say the "Hearse" ad. In addition, this ad campaign successfully relies on the iconic branding of Pepsi to sell the product and instead of speaking to Pepsi's benefits these ads are fun, playful reminders that Pepsi is your favorite soda. The first image below is especially effective in this sense because it brings a localized aspect into the branding by incorporation the Pepsi logo into the phrase "CHI TOWN". This not only gives the feeling that Pepsi loves and cares about Chicago but also that it's a "hometown" drink because they use the slang name of Chicago that many Chicagoans use rather than merely saying "CHICAGO" with the O replaced by the Pepsi logo.