I’m a sucker for innovative ambient work, which used to be called guerrilla advertising — and probably still is in some circles. What’s great about ambient work is that it’s so unexpectedly disruptive. Advertising so saturates our society, so assaults us from every roadside, radio frequency and corner of the Internet, that are minds have a hard time processing it all. We go into cruise control and let most ads wash over us without their little seeds taking root in our subconscious. After awhile it all becomes noise. (I’ve probably been exposed to 50 web banners today, and I can’t remember a single one.)
But ambient work, with its grandiose scale and unexpected placements, jolts us from our ad-averse reverie and forces us to take notice.
Two perfect examples are these beauties from Cossette.
How do you advertise free coffee at McDonald’s? Well, you transform a light post into a pouring pot of coffee. Duh!
Seriously, in a thousand years I’m not sure I would have thought to do this. Brilliant.
And then there’s this one, which works just as well and has the added benefit of stressing to consumers that time is running out. Everyday the coffee bean count goes down. Again, brilliant. I only hope they don’t actually brew the coffee using these beans. Eck!
Click images to see bigger.
nice! almost makes me want a cup of coffee … almost.
Whoa, these ARE brilliant! I wonder how they get the coffee beans outta the case…
Nice to see some advertisers still care to try to surprise us.
Are you in advertising, now? You'd be brilliant at it!