by Sander van Heerde
19. December 2011 01:46
This snapshot from Fifth Avenue New York shows a huge advert by Zara, a hotdog stand and a lady. Although the subjects have nothing in common in there ordinary lives, in this photo they are showing us how good we can play the game of encoding and decoding in advertisments and what role irony play's in it.
The sheer size of the ad and the downward looking posture of the lady in the ad makes the people in the street look small and silly and perhaps ‘less’ people than the glamours looking models you usually see in the adverts. Infact this is exactly what the advertisment company’s want to say: you are better and feel better if you buy our product.
But the irony is that i don’t feel better if i look at those ad’s and i don’t think the lady that is coming down the stairs is feeling good either.
The advertisment industry has much experience and is way beyond ‘direct’ communication and so is the viewer. We are so used to read and to decode ad’s and images on the streets and in magazines that we have developed a blindspot for pulp and standard advertisments. Nowadays it requires a more sophisticated aproach and seasoned visual communication to get the message across.
This is why Zara doesn’t show a nice summer dress and a happy looking model on the Fifth Avenue but engages with te people on the street with big gestures an even bigger perspectives like the stairs (this ad is next to a very big pedestrians crossing/zebrapad) Like the people on the street, the model in the ad is waiting.. for the light to go green or the Zara shop to open. So you better be looking good while your waiting!
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