What a powerful message. This advertisement really struck home for me, and I found it important to use as my second blog. After being an a horrific car accident two years ago, I have been a diligent advocate for all promotions about safety while driving. What is being presented here is an campaign for "Don't Text and Drive" by Fiat, a car company.
The first thing a reader would notice is the big black shadow of a cell phone. The cell phone is a familiar outline to everyone, here being the classic flip phone everyone owned before smart phones were invented. I think the beige background really supports the fierce black of the phone. The phone is also relevant-this is for a campaign against texting and driving after all. Interestingly enough, although the phone is the largest part of the advertisement and in the center, the first thing I noticed was the Fiat symbol located at the bottom of the page. Coincidence? Perhaps. The label and Fiat looks so foreign to the rest of the page, my eyes immediately traveled down to it.
The text is the most intriguing part of the advertisement. After all, typography is everything. This font to symbolize Salvador Dali does a great job! Salvador Dali, for those who do not know, was a famous artist who painted abstract images and had a sexual symbolism. However, his most famous artistic interpretation was a melting clock painting. Here it is:
Salvador Dali was a whimsical artist and the text Fiat picked to display his "final thoughts" is extremely appropriate, in my opinion. The text is big, there is little to no organization and it is quite abstract, just like his above painting. It is organized in an interesting way, with the giant Y swooping down and the weird looking quotation marks. However, because of who Salvador Dali is, this text makes perfect sense! Especially in contrast to the other text being straightforward and simply. This is the text conveying the powerful message Fiat is trying to provide.
I wanted to touch on the color decision for the advertisement. After all, why is Salvador Dali speaking with yellow? In my opinion, yellow against black reminds me of the ferocious nature of hornets. This message is also fierce and the color contrast of yellow on black conveys an urgent and important message the reader MUST hear.
The color and the text of the document are the most stand out elements, however, I must also touch on the importance of alignment and placement. As I previously stated, the phone is point center, but why did I look straight down to the perfectly balanced and aligned:
DNT
TXT
AND
DRV
What a perfect campaign strategy. How visually appealing that message is. Four words, same amount of lettering and perfectly balanced. It looks so perfect! My eyes really enjoyed it, and my mind was thrilled with the momentary puzzle that was those four words. For one millisecond, I had to stop and think about what those four words meant. I think that is the point of the campaign though. Getting the reader to stop and THINK, not only look.
This document is clever because it involves thinking about another reference unpopular in culture. The document forces the reader to stop and think about what Fiat is trying to accomplish.
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