Uhh Hi Phil

This week I’m bringing you yet another Revlon nail polish ad. This one, however, is all wrong. Like the Parfumerie ad, Revlon stepped out of the box and did something different, they featured a man in a nail polish ad. Unfortunately, it was poorly executed.

I need to start off with the big, awkward elephant in the room. This poor, scruffy man in the ad being shrouded by a woman’s hands just looks confused. I’m not sure why he’s there and he doesn’t seem to know either. The text in the bottom left hand corner says “’Divine’ disarms Phil. Find out more at youtube.com/Phil”. Divine being the name of the nail polish being worn by the hands smothering Phil’s face. Of course I wanted to learn more about Phil and what on earth is going on in this photo so I found the clip they were referring to on YouTube. The 15 second video features Phil describing himself as shy, British, awkward, and embarrassing, all the while these same hands are rubbing all over his face, awkward is right. That’s all, no explanation as to why Phil is in this video or the ad for that matter, he doesn’t even mention the nail polish nor does the video offer any information on the product. In case you want to watch the video for yourself, here’s the link http://youtu.be/cpU0LAOUbwY?list=UUXGVsie-SIk3e3wJmUTyEhw

Aside from perplexed Phil, the right page doesn’t have much going for it either. They’ve gone for the obvious pun in the headline, “64 shades that nail the trends” not very clever or witty, they could’ve polished the headline a little more.  The copy at the bottom is also a little perplexing. They say, “Others may try to imitate our innovation.” They don’t, however, explain what innovation they’re speaking of, it looks like a pretty standard bottle of nail polish if you ask me. The next sentence puts the nail in the coffin “But the power of originality has always been in our hands.” And there you have it, another pun. And again, what originality are they referring to?

This ad is just so odd to me. It did intrigue me enough to send me to their YouTube page albeit the video only left me more puzzled. Sorry Revlon, you can’t win ‘em all.

Stop and smell the rose scented nail polish

Revlon has created a clever magazine ad for their new scented nail polish line. The line is called Revlon Parfumerie so it’s completely fitting that in this ad they’ve featured scent testers like you would see in a perfume ad.

Personally, I love it when perfume ads feature the scent testers, it gets the reader involved in the ad, so when I saw that Revlon did this for their nail polish I thought it was genius.

As for the overall look of the ad, it’s nice, nothing spectacular. I know that they’re trying to display their colour range but the colours that they’ve chosen to showcase clash with each other, making it look a little tacky and according to the ad they have 24 colour choices so I’m sure they could’ve made a better choice. I do like though, that they’ve set it on a black background, it makes the polishes pop and the positioning of the bottles creates visual interest rather than just lining them up in a row. Also, the tiny detail of the drip falling from one of the bottles also adds visual interest; they clearly paid attention to detail.

The copy in this ad is again nothing special, although I never expect much from drugstore makeup brands in terms of copy, as it’s usually pretty mundane.  They’ve incorporated as many adjectives as they could fit into the short paragraph, there’s also quite a bit of repetition, but again, it’s to be expected.

I rather liked the scents from the ad and I’ll probably even go pick one up. I know I seemed a little harsh on the ad but it really did intrigue me, and hey, they sold me on the product.

Normal Is Boring

This fall, Gap released a new ad campaign with the tagline “Dress Normal”. The ads have been met with mixed emotions and I can’t say I’m sold on their new direction either.

Gap has always been a very “vanilla” brand, selling plain, preppy clothing; it seems that they’re trying to shed this image by becoming a little more edgy, if cardigans and khakis could be edgy. The ads, most of which feature celebrities, are all pretty dull in colour and feature the model or celebrity doing normal everyday stuff, pretty dull all around if you ask me. And then there’s the tagline, “Dress Normal”. What does that even mean? Is there even a definition of normal in fashion anymore? Or are they trying to say that the cardigans and khakis they sell are what’s normal and that we should stick to wearing basics? In a world of individualism and wanting to stand out, who really wants to dress normally like everyone else? Not I.

It’s funny how the look of the campaign gives off an edgy vibe when really the company and the clothes they sell haven’t changed at all. If you visit Gap’s website you’ll see the same bright colours and cheerful models wearing the same simple clothing that Gap has always sold.

It’s safe to say that what Gap wanted with this campaign was to stir up some buzz, which they have accomplished. The ads have become quite talked about since their release but it hasn’t been all praise. Nice try Gap but abnormal is the new normal.

Ouch

The title says it all and this is how I’ll sum up this ad, ouch. Now I know this is not a beauty or fashion related ad, but as I was flipping through the pages of a fashion magazine I came across this piece that just struck me as so bizarre that I just had to talk about it.

First of all, what exactly is a Diva Cup? For a seemingly unknown product, this ad doesn’t offer up much information other than the words “Say goodbye to tampons and pads” from this, I can only imagine what the product is used for. There’s also a tiny picture of the product in the bottom left-hand corner, it’s a questionable looking device which will probably prompt readers to visit the website (like I did) so there’s one thing going for them.

Then there’s this god-awful headline, I’m not even sure where to begin. The copy itself doesn’t make much sense, then there’s the overuse of exclamation points and the dreaded ellipses. If there’s one thing I learned from advertising school, it’s to never use ellipses in advertising. I’m sure there must be some exception to the rule but this headline is subject to no exception, it’s simply baffling.

Next, I need to address this poor woman’s facial expression who looks like she’s in excruciating pain (perhaps from the use of this product?). I’m not sure what the art director was going for here, excitement? Anticipation? Whatever the case, I don’t think the end result is a favourable one

Elle Canada, where I found this ad, is full of beautiful and sophisticated ads for designer brands like Chanel and Rolex who deliver works of art by award-winning photographers and creative directors. For some reason they’ve allowed this ad for Diva Cup to tarnish their pages. It just doesn’t seem fitting to me. Diva Cup really missed the mark on this one; hopefully their product doesn’t elicit as much pain as their ad does.

The Advertorial

The image you see above is what’s called an advertorial; it may look like a regular magazine editorial however it’s actually an ad for Sorel. The page on the left is clearly an ad, with a basic image of the product but the page on the right looks like a winter fashion article. The advertorial clearly states ADVERTISEMENT on the top right-hand corner, which is required by law. Although the writing is small, it is there.

Although it may be seen as deceptive, I’m a fan of the advertorial. Most people don’t look through a magazine for the ads (unless you’re in advertising like I am) and so if you’re forced to look at ads they might as well look like an article.

This ad looks like a beautiful piece on winter boots. From the font choice to the photo, this page is visually pleasing and actually made me want to read it. Although the copy was solely about selling their new style of boot, I didn’t feel disappointed or cheated because I realized beforehand that it was an ad and was expecting it.

Although I’ve mentioned my distaste for deceptive advertising previously on my blog, I do stand behind this one. This is the kind of ad that fashionistas will stop and notice and I appreciate an ad that takes advantage of its media.