Can advertising “misbehave?” And if it can, is that o.k? Here at Renaissance, we recently experienced an incident that prompted us to explore the answers to these questions.
A couple of weeks ago, we were put in “time out” by FOR RENT magazine, who declined to run an ad we created for Citigate, a new rental community located in Jacksonville, FL from developer Julian LeCraw. Our branding and marketing efforts for Citigate have been geared towards a target market consisting primarily of young professionals who work in and around the white-collar employment and entertainment district conveniently surrounding the community.
Apparently, our ad, which featured an interesting crop of a beautiful young woman sipping tea and the headline, “I Dare You. Make a Move.”, was deemed “too sexy” for the publication. They specifically noted a policy that prohibited them from running any ad that might result in a potential complaint from any reader who might find it objectionable.
Before we proceed with our discussion, you might want to take a peek at our ad, yourself.
What do you think: Does it suffer from over-“exposure”?
Pretty hot, huh?!!
I’ll admit it. I let the job folder sit on my desk a couple of days longer than usual. I really, really loved it, ummm… creatively speaking! BUT, before you call me sexist and send me to the corner—allow me to make a couple of observations.
First, interestingly, the Designer, Copywriter, Account Manager and (client) Marketing Director for this ad were/are all exceptionally talented, intelligent, empowered women. So rest assured, there was no “Mad Men” foul play in the background here! (Side note: Check out more of lead designer Emily Rawitsch’s award-winning work in the latest Communication Arts Design Annual and Black Book AR100 Competition. Emily is neither a feminist nor a prude—simply a supremely talented designer!).
Second, as far as the “exposure” factor goes, I’m a father of 5 and 9 year-old daughters and very sensitive as to what their innocent, impressionable eyes see. In fact, the original image used in this ad showed the woman in it wearing a ring on her left “wedding” finger, which I specifically asked Emily to remove (it’s now on her right hand). Additionally, unless my daughters will be perusing apartment communities in the rental guides any time soon, I doubt they’d ever even stumble upon this ad. Heck—I see worse every single day in the checkout line at the grocery store, on the covers of People, US Magazine and… Health and Fitness!
Last—and this brings us to the point—the ad is reflective of everything good design should be! Targeted and compelling; Clean and sophisticated; An eye-catching image with a beautiful graphic quality. The copy is smart, edgy and succinct. It ultimately does exactly what you want great creative to do, which is to stand out, be memorable and provoke an emotional response.