Sunday, October 21, 2007

Don't Cover Your Ass

An odd advertising done in the U.K. for Remington hair trimmer and shaver. At first look it looked sort of disgusting, but after a second thought I tried to analyze the communication hid in it, bringing it down to real life. A man with hair problem on that particular place, has not really many choices... rather he leaves them as they are, or he asks somebody else to do it (probably by visiting an aesthetician to have a total permanent depilation). The chance to visit his local barber doesn't really exist and that is the funny part in it. This product here promises to make us do the job "home alone". The copy is claiming: "For all the places you don't want your barber to go". A remarkable spot, is a flag shown hanging from a building outside the window, if you have a closer look... It has a star on it, so I wonder... If the ad was colored, would that flag be red? hm... makes me think there might be a political meaning in it. It is kind of obvious that the whole art direction is trying to bring memories from some sort of "old days", that detail just reminds me that they don't want to make it look "Western's world" old days. Now isn't that a bit insulting for some people? :-/

By the way this reminds me of something else (not necessarily irrelevant, but didactic)...
There was an old donkey who fell down a well on a farm. The donkey cried & cried for the farmer to help him, but the farmer didn't care.
The farmer was getting tired of the noise the donkey was making, so he called all the villagers to help him bury the donkey in the well.
They started burying the donkey, but he would shake the dirt off his back, stomp on it, and make stairs to the top. Eventually he got out.
Then the donkey went and kicked the farmer, and the villagers too.
Moral of the story: No matter how much dirt life throws on your back, shake it off and don't let it bring you down.
REAL Moral of the story: Don't cover your ass 'cause it'll always come back to get you. :-)

Client: Remington Body Hair Trimmer
Agency: Grey, London
Creative Director: David Alberts
Copywriter: J Marlow / Jimmy Blom
Art Director: J Marlow / Jimmy Blom
Photographer: Paul Reas

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