Cape Times Uses Tragedy to Sell Papers
The ever-cheery Ivan at Ads of the World points us to a campaign for The Cape Times, a South African daily.
Peaceful prints depict the quiet before a given international storm. The slogan quotes the catastrophic date ("Monday 10 September 2001," for example) and soberly admonishes, "The world can change in a day. Don't miss your daily edition of in-depth news. Cape Times. Know All About It."
Check out 9/11, the Kennedy assassination, Soweto uprising and Hiroshima versions.
While leveraging tragedy always draws some heat, we're on the fence with these. They get the point across nicely but it rings callous to capture moments of quiet intimacy that took place before the world came tumbling down.
Maybe that means the campaign is good. Either way, Lowe Bull is to blame.
Suggested slogan change: "When yo' shit hits the fan, we'll be printing the casualty list!"
Comments
I'm so tired of some agency doing a campaign for local newspapers that uses tragic events as 'easy ways in' for their 'profound concept.' I can remember another one done in India, and one done in Brazil.
Really, are there no other good ideas for newspapers that don't need to suck their power off of people's misery?
Lugnut,
While this ad doesn't necessarily make me want to run out and buy a copy of the Cape Times, its simplicity and messaging seems rather genuine to me. For whatever reason, it didn't initially strike me as opportunistic, capitalizing on other people's misery.
Polarizing? Yes.
Simple? Yes.
Poignant? Yes.
Smart? Yes.
Lugnut,
While this ad doesn't necessarily make me want to run out and buy a copy of the Cape Times, its simplicity and messaging seems rather genuine to me. For whatever reason, it didn't initially strike me as opportunistic, capitalizing on other people's misery.
Polarizing? Yes.
Simple? Yes.
Poignant? Yes.
Smart? Yes.
@ Lugnut - What else do newsmedia do if not thrive on other people's misery?
And I have to agree with Lugwrench's assesment of the campaign too.
Lugwrench...I didn't say it doesn't work as an idea. I just said it was an easy answer. Sometimes our jobs as creatives are to think beyond a first-idea and come at it in a more unexpected way. To leverage the weight of tragedies just sucks the weight of the events in order to give meaning to the ad. Rather than the ad provoking thought based on the merit of the idea itself.
Londoner...what else does the media have? That doesn't mean you have to exploit it to sell papers. Again, I have seen very similar work before.
But a great ad would do it in a smarter way. Time magazine for example. Simple. Powerful. Thought-provoking. Respectfully restrained.
Lugnut,
I would argue that not "sometimes," but "all times" it's our job as creatives to think beyond a first-idea and come at it in a more unexpected way.
just curious:
do you think apple's think different campaign also "sucks the weight of the minds of creative thinkers" in order to give meaning to a series of ads that struck a nerve in every one of us who have ever held a crayon?
if so, let's agree to disagree.
Kennedy wasn't in Washington on the 21st, he was in Texas. So not only is it preying on tragedy, it's falsifying the record to do so.