These are the questions I asked my staff about this ad from, um, wait who is this ad from anyway? Oh, there it is, a tiny logo in the lower right corner tells me the company name is SEE. Apparently that stands for “selective eyewear elements.” Is that the biggest problem with this ad? Maybe. The irony of a nearly invisible identity for an eyewear store aside…
Here’s what the collective seems to get: Warhol. Silence of the Lambs. New York. Plastic lips? (Ok, that last one was just a single comment.) More importantly, everyone got that this is ad is about a wide selection of funky eyewear.
The thing that NOBODY seemed to get was the headline: “hip without the rip.” [Note: the rip on the left edge is not part of the ad; it is merely a result of my poor tearing-out skills.] I believe it means that you can get cool styles (hip) without paying too much money (rip, as in rip off). Catchy slogan, but one that – at this juncture of this fairly unknown brand’s history – would benefit from explanatory body copy.
Despite its flaws, I really like this ad. Why? The girl with two-tone tortoise-shell / blue lipstick to match her frames made me stop while flipping through an ad-laden magazine. It’s cool. It’s different. It’s interesting. It’s not easily gettable, but it was worth the effort – for me, anyway.
~ @AdvertGirl
