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| My wife told me to do ads for the zoo. "I've never seen them," she said. "That's cause they suck." I didn't want to do them. The zoo is a hard place to advertise. I'm not in love with the Oregon Zoo, but I also grew up at The Wild Animal Park and the San Diego Zoo. I like this idea though. There's a lot to build on. They're meant to be separate ads. I was picturing bas ads. |
Friday, September 23, 2011
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I think the zoo is an idea trap. It's very easy to get sucked into a zone of kids, jungles and animals and end up churning out the next in a line of ads that goes back for literally hundreds of years.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, those things work very well for the zoo because they're easy to identify. If I'm in a city and there's a jungle scene with a kid standing in it and no velociraptors, it's gotta be for the zoo. If there's a high-rez, close in shot of a monkey and there isn't a gold National Geographic border, it's the zoo.
With this ad, the first thing I see is the zoo logo. So, it's for the zoo, but then I read the copy and I'm not quite so sure. If I wanted to be a bird watcher, I'm not sure I'd go to the zoo. Maybe I'd buy a book? If I wanted to be a top researcher, I'd get another degree to keep my AI one company. The last line makes the least sense "Provide more than just a sack lunch, bring your lesson plan". The zoo doesn't provide lunches... I might bring a lunch but I'm not providing it to anyone else.
I get it! It clicked. You're saying "IF you want X, find it at the zoo by doing Y". That makes the last line more of a call to action - "Bring more then a sack lunch - bring your lesson plan". Clever!
I think there is a lot to build on - I would probably slim down the number of repetitions and focus on the least grandiose ones. You might be able to create a stronger call to action by tossing a "Come" or "Want" at the start of each line too. "Come be a famous bird watcher/bring binoculars" "Come on a vacation from everyone/bring your ipod".