bad photography is an unforgivable sin. pretty much. especially if you're a professional

A note: Criticizing an ad campaign is not the same thing as criticizing the product it is selling. I'm not certain why people think they are the same, to me it seems very clear that one could criticize one without even bothering with the other. Example? That Cloverfield movie. Excellent ad campaign. It was EVERYWHERE and the whole online aspect of it was pretty interesting. The movie itself I had zero interest in (it's not my kind of movie) but the ad campaign was really well put together. Another example? How about this new clean coal ad?



I know what they are trying to say but I'm going to say that it really doesn't come off like that to me. Every time I see it, I think "so clean coal is so clean that it's just like there's no impact on the planet. Got it." Maybe I just have become excellent at REALLY missing the point but anyway, that's how I see it. And the cause? Totally worthy, the ad just sort of sucks.

So is that clear? I can like or dislike an ad without that changing my opinion of the product. Of course, sometimes it does happen that my opinion of the ad is the same as my opinion of the product but these two things don't necessarily have to be the same.

Also, if an ad campaign has sub-par photography, you'd better bet I'll despise it. And so many ads have terrible photography so there's a lot for me to dislike there. BUT I CAN STILL LIKE THE PRODUCT.

Can you tell this is a pet peeve?

And now, to finish out this post, some ads that either make me ridiculously happy or make me want to tear my out.


The text is not in english but the translation is: Forget about it. Men's preference will never change. Fit Light Yogurt.
The photo itself is BEAUTIFUL and the woman is GORGEOUS. Why does this ad SUCK? Because, obviously, being bigger than a size two is a cardinal sin and shit, even if you don't care about being tiny, what about the menz? THEY LIKE THE THIN HOT LADIES SO BE THIN AND HOTTTT!!!!


Ah yes, there is nothing quite like good old fashioned racism in ads. Thank you Intel for this fine piece of advertising. Because seriously, having your white dude apparently being the overlord type of six kneeling (I know it's to show they can run fast, whatever, it comes off as kneeling to him) identical black dudes would have absolutely no reason to be perceived as in any way racist. Excellent work.


This ad is just cool. Too cool. I love the whole concept. Who did this? I want to hug them now! The only problem is the text is hard to read but I suspect that this would be solved when the image is in print or online wherever it's supposed to be. Very minimalist, simple clean, perfection!

This ad just rocks out loud. It's for MTV, a product I am not a fan of in the least, however the photography, brilliant and the concept makes me happy. Menacing violinists should be in everything!

There are some other ads around here I'd like to mention but I have no photos of them. There's the Twilight ad that has the WORST PHOTOGRAPHY EVER and the American Apparel ad that make zero sense (Let them eat cake.. WTF??) among others. I haven't seen either one anywhere else so let's hope the creators of the campaigns came to their senses and cut those ads from their campaigns. Still I'll take photos and talk about them later because I want to dissect the photography aspect of them. So yes.