Part . The Creative Brief: Disarming the Weapons of Mass Deception
Irvine, California: When did roadkill become something to celebrate? We are making 73 species extinct every day. Can we not show more respect for those that survive despite us? The ad copy promises to boost your confidence, as you master weaker things. How did cars go from being tools to being therapy?
Tokyo, Japan: I found this food packaging for mangoflavored snack cakes in a grocery store in Japan. The food is as simple as it comes. However, the package design is layered with complexity, bordering on the predatory. Is most shopping simply feeding a frustrated hunter-gatherer instinct?
Montréal, Canada: Tobacco marketers greedily circumvent laws banning point-of purchase cigarette displays in stores, encouraging corner store owners to instead display clever matchboxes that mimic cigarette packs on the checkout counter. Must the marketing ethic be as unhealthy as the product?
Suva, Fiji: Convincing people to pay more for water than for refined gasoline may seem impressive. Shipping water from the South Seas in plastic bottles from China to the U.S. and Europe in container ships seems unsustainable. Positioning the product as an environmental solution seems outrageous.
Cult Shaker transit ad, Copenhagen, 2003. Cheap caffeine, alcohol, and sex in a bottle