Now this is something really worth looking at. If you’re looking for a bullet-proof way to scare away your target audience, follow the lead of this advertising agency, and you’ll be fine.

I have to admit: at first, I didn’t quite know what to make of these ads for UK Trade & Investment. That’s the client - the “Government organisation that helps UK-based companies succeed in an increasingly global economy” (from their About page). I’ll show you what I mean. Let’s take a look at a very interesting series of 6 mesmerizing print ads with a huge learning value for us designers and advertisers.

Click on the following image to view a larger version. Just don’t get stuck in this computer generated girl’s cleavage; there is more to come…

The first ad in this series makes a intriguing statement. “God didn’t create the perfect woman, the UK’s gaming industry did”. Excuse me? Oh wait, you’re targeting kids. Wait, no, you’re not! Your target audience are Indian business investors.

Let me put together what we see here.

The headline

• It’s an exaggeration. This is an effective tool in advertising when used for the right products in the right atmosphere. In this case, it stands alone with no support from the visual or from the copy. This makes it implausible and cheap.
• It’s polarizing and controversial. Again, usually counted among the qualities of a good and effective headline - but this one just doesn’t do it.
• It uses the typeface “Bleeding Cowboys”. Not only overused, but also totally out of place in the overall style of the artwork. Plus, it’s not well executed:
  • The inverted comma in “didn’t” doesn’t fit in correctly (Special characters aren’t a part of this typeface. The apostroph was taken from another font but wasn’t adapted to fit the rest).
  • The swoosh of the “t” in didn’t is executed sloppily.
  • The added swooshes (”p” in perfect, “m” in woman) don’t ascend well from their sources, the letters.
• The overall uneasiness is pandered by the headline, which gives the eye no reference point to hold on to at all. There is an unbalance between the two lines of the headline itself, and although it’s supposed to look grungy and edgy, it just looks chaotic.
• On the page, the headline was centered using the left edge of the initial “G” and the right edge of the closing period. In this case, that’s not optimal: it would have been more favorable to use the last letter, the “n” of woman, instead of the punctuation mark.

The visual

• If you haven’t noticed, this is Lara Croft, the protagonist of the video game Tomb Raider created by UK-based Core Design. The first issue of the game appeared in 1996 and was sold millions of times around the globe, mostly to pubescent teenage boys.
• Lara is executed nicely. Funny: this may be the one part that Core Design contributed to the ads.
• The leaves growing on the rock to the left are too dark and look like the AD slipped with the brush.
• Lara’s left boot shows in an awkward way just above the tag bar at the bottom.
• You can see the sloppy use of Photoshop’s clone stamp tool to make the rope longer on the white background above the headline.

The copy

This is what it says:

A UK company created Tomb Raider, a global success story in gaming. With amazing graphics, inventive gameplay and involving storylines, it virtually redefined the rules of the game. Home to 150 development studios that have created iconic products like Grand Theft Auto, the UK is the European base of international giants like Sony and Sega. UK companies are looking for Indian partners. With the UK having a 12% share of global sales, it’s the perfect opportunity for you.

Phew.

• Too long and terrible copy.
  • Is “virtually” a pun?
  • What’s the 2nd sentence supposed to mean - the game Tomb Raider redefined its own rules? Or - the UK company redefined the rules of their own game?
  • Grand Theft Auto - forced namedropping?
  • Are Sony and Sega looking for Indian investment partners?
  • The UK has a 12% share of global sales in what market, and compared to whom? Is 12% a lot?
  • And whom do they mean by “UK”? The 150 development studios, or Sony and Sega, or all together?
• More than that, the copy is squeezed into a single paragraph with no air. At least put in a line break before “UK companies are looking for Indian partners”.
• The ragged type breaks uncontrolled and looks ugly, also because it’s aligned to the right.

The tag element

• The dark, off red is even more stinging to the eye than the headline.
• The pixelish style of the horizontal bar, intending to communicate a computerized, technozoic new-edge image, looks unclean and clumsy.
• The logo and tagline aren’t aligned with the above copy properly.
• The logo seems to be composed from the font Karbid Extra Bold. It looks too playful and forced for a government office.
• The logo in the ad isn’t the real logo. It shows nowhere on the website. That may also be because half of the links on the site are broken and bring up errors.

Looking at the overall composition, the whole content is keeling over to the right. The header subline, Lara, the copy, and the logo with the tagline are all pulling to the right side of the page.

What more can I say? Almost everything about this ad is wrong. To make the story worse, let’s look at the other five ads, making this horror series complete. Please do take the time to enlarge every one of the following images, I promise you won’t regret it.

See what I mean? Terribly extracted dandy hair, awful imagery, excruciating and misleading copy - what more can I say. Not bad for an ad series targeting financial investors! As for the client, it’s also most unfortunate that the web address printed on the ads (www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk) doesn’t work when you leave out the initial www. Not to mention that it produces internal server errors for almost every link on the site. I guess it just wasn’t their lucky day.

Is it just me, or do you share my view about these ads? Tell us what you think!

Disclaimer: This post solely reflects the author’s opinion about the above print ads as found on Ads of the World. The author makes no statement whatsoever about the client who bought these ads (UK Trade & Investment) or about the the advertising agency that created them (named below).

Advertising Agency: Contract Advertising, New Delhi, India
Creative Directors: Uddalak Gupta, Vineet Mahajan
Art Directors: Vineet Mahajan, Ayan Pal
Copywriter: Uddalak Gupta
Account Management: Swapnadip Majumdar, Anshuman Ahluwalia, Neha Budhiraja
Illustrator: Ayan Pal
Published: March 2008