volvo poster ads
 

can someone please explain to me the volvo poster ads they have in those bus shelters which have a picture of a persons face, which is either a man or woman or child but isn't. its actually a mixture of a woman with a goatee, or the man wearing female glasses or the child with.... whatever, it's stupid wither way.
now if you say that the advertising ppl have gotten my attention, then well gosh darnit they have, but if its a positive attention getter, then thats another story.
so what is the ad trying to achieve?
its gotten me puzzled, however i havent had a chance to read any of the small text underneath it.

Saw the Volvo TV ad with that same theme last night...beards and goatees !!!.....thought, 'what the hell was that about!'...then forgot about it........

I think the idea is that volvo drivers are supposed to be young(ish) males with glasses and a goatee and everyone wants to be one of them.

Not me I'd rather an S2k anyday...

Everytime I see that ad I think to myself 'there's that dude out of Half Life' :)

Gordon Freemans everywhere you look :D
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20030808/freeman.jpg

YellaFella, where are you? Can you explain this creative artistry to us philistines?

IMHO it could be that the guy in the ad is a Swedish definition of what a good looking young male should look like and this hasn't translated well in the wider world.

And again, IMHO, I think the ad is trying to say that the other people in the ad are wishing they were like the Volvo driver.

Diverting just a little from the precise topic of this thread, some members here may recall an old Dudley Moore movie that satirised the advertising industry. I've forgotten the name of the movie but they did get permission from the companies whose products they made up ads for. Volvo was one of them.

The theme of the movie was that Dudley Moore played a naive new advertising creator who made up ads that told the truth. The slogan that he came up with for Volvo was "They're boxy but they're good".

Crazy People - Dudley Moore

"They're boxy, but safe!"

Haven't seen the ad but I'll have a guess at it;)

It sounds like they are trying to show that its trying to show that a wide range of demographics are matched with the Volvlo range.

Can I explain the ad? Sure, I think that you've explained it yourself by posting here. Extended advertising, strange ads like that prompt you to discuss it with your peers that may have missed it (like me) and then gives them free advertising:D

This is similar to the line usually trotted out by advertising-industry people trying to justify a really stupid ad. It misses the point that the ad acts as a negative for the product it's trying to sell.

Naturally, an advertising agency can't afford to have a client thinking that the ad they paid for is having a negative effect and so they have this plausible denial strategy.

The advertising industry is not perfect. Not every ad hits its target, Some are ineffective, some are just plain wrong and a few are so wrong or so stupid that they annoy the people they're trying to persuade. This Volvo ad seems to fall into the irritating category.

When a member of the public or the media highlights that this is a bad ad, the agency (and/or the advertising industry) are desperate to protect their fee revenue and so out comes the pseudo-psychology mumbo jumbo that says that because we're talking about it, it must have been a good ad. :bs:

I'm surprised you all haven't worked this out. The beard is symbolic of an older conservative driver - i.e the stereotypical Volvo driver. However, Volvo are now saying that their vehicles no longer fit that demographic (even though the general public may still believe they do) and they are actually very sporty vehicles.

So the basis of the ad is that driving a Volvo is actually cool. Ipso facto, if it means you have to look like the stereotype in order to own a Volvo then people are prepared to take on the stereotype in order to enjoy the pleasures of Volvo ownership.

Wow Turkey, I'm really impressed with your analysis, but isn't that logic a bit too twisted for the average viewer to unravel?