At a glance, this advertisement seems
calming and happy. The image has vibrant colors and a brilliant contrast as
sunlight refracts in the water. Without reading the full message, the
words GREATEST, WONDER, and ALIVE pop out at the audience. These words give the
viewer a temporary sense of tranquility before they really notice what’s going
on in the ad. It only takes a moment of attention however, before the true meaning
of this advertisement is revealed. Suddenly, all the feelings of peace have
scattered and you are left with the uneasy weight of devastation. What you once
thought were colorful fish, have now been revealed as plastic, glass, and
debris. Your eyes jump around helplessly, but you realize there isn’t a single
fish in sight. Confused, you look up to read the full caption. It reads…
“THE GREATEST WONDER
OF THE SEA IS
THAT IT’S STILL ALIVE”
…Composed only of words typically used to describe
goodness, this caption plants an unsettling mood in the target audience. They
look back at the Listerine bottles, beer bottles, crushed cans, and tubes. And
they are brought to sense, while realizing this image, which is causing them
internal distress, could have easily been recreated using the garbage that they
themselves have been responsible for. The audience is stressed as they remember
walking past trash by a river bank and stepping over flattened foam cups,
justifying their actions because they felt someone else should have been
responsible. The truth is, people don’t give it a second thought and they don’t
write their name and address on trash they discard. Which leads to the point
this ad is making, that this sea could very well be full of your own waste. And
the greatest wonder you’d ask yourself is, “Why didn’t you give it a second
thought?”
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