Sunday, September 28, 2014

TOW #4 Clear Channel Billboard (Image)

I think this piece of advertising is very witty, but also has a few flaws in its effectiveness. This billboard was placed by ClearChannel in order to promote healthy eating. This billboard, from a distance would obscure the comma and as a result cause the reader to think, "if I eat shit I will die." This is also more likely to cause the viewer to be peeved subconsciously due to the use of the color red, packaging the emotion of anger. This is an obvious message to get people to eat right. However, close up the comma would become more clear. The billboard now uses toilet humor in order to entertain the viewer, and simultaneously now uses the color red, not for anger but a symbol of health, as represented by the heart-shaped logo on the bottom right. It easily transforms an attention-grabbing jab at the viewer into a type of dark-comedy. However, although the idea is very witty and well-thought out, there is one glaring issue. The location. It is placed roadside. A person in a moving vehicle going 40 mph has almost no way of seeing this billboard properly. Perhaps if it were larger and more faraway, someone with non-herculean ocular muscles could comprehend that behemoth of text in the bottom left. Even in this picture, I cannot read the words. I think the word diet is in there, so it clearly is trying to say something about health, but at that proximity to the road, there is no possible way anyone could properly read what is written there. The road is literally right in front of this sign. The billboard was great in concept, but fails in its execution.

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