Look at Me!

As a professional marketer, you train yourself to be on the lookout for excellent writing and creativity.  I appreciate the marketing art and find inspiration for creating my own “zingers”  (my term for something catchy).

A favorite goldmine of mine is highway billboards.  Those massive ideas are required to be attention grabbing, succinct, and memorable.  Easy enough.  Ha. 

On my way to the airport last week, my husband was driving, so I was free to mine the advertisements we were zipping past.  I’ve noticed that certain companies will contract and advertise on certain billboards, so there is often a predictability in placement.

As we neared the animal shelter that frequently posts photos of little darlings waiting for adoption, I saw an ad with a white background and an orange kitten.  My first reaction was “Ahhhhh-dorable!” 

Then my eyes scanned the rest of the sign, looking for the “call-to-action.”  I figured it would be something like “Come meet this new member of your family…” and the cat would undoubtedly be named something sweet like “Fluffy” or “Pumpkin.”

Instead there was a small logo in the bottom left corner that read “Radio from Hell” and listed the call numbers.

I sat up and took a quick double take.  Yep, that’s what it said.  I settled back and thought to myself “What?  Why?  That’s so incongruent.”

But isn’t that just how the adversary works?  If he was to throw up some nasty image of hell, we would be shocked and avert our eyes.  Instead, he uses something attractive, gets us to look, and then quietly advertises or stokes our curiosity in the bottom left corner. 

We may think it’s incongruent, but the point is, we are now thinking about it.

Urged to be informed consumers of everything from food products to business services, how critical is it to also be aware of our media consumption?  What looks cute, funny, or educational is too often laced with things we don’t want swaying us or our families.

Awareness is the first step in arming ourselves against clever marketing.  We won’t allow it to just flow in.  This is one place we can judge with righteous judgement.