If you don't like it, don't look

Advertising is all around us in various shapes and sizes. In my mind, the purpose of it all is to introduce and promote a consumable product to the consumer. Good advertising has a specific target audience in mind. That audience is researched thoroughly and the advertiser designs the creative look and message with the audience in mind. It is then tested with members of that demographic before being launched. The final product should resonate with the target audience. It should speak to them directly and encourage them to act. Good advertising doesn’t lie. 

When an ad campaign is accused of being offensive or inappropriate – overly sexual, culturally insensitive, too violent, etc. – I’m definitely not the first one to grab my pitchfork and join the lynch mob. First of all, if this is a ‘good’ campaign based on my criteria above, then the creator of these ads was hoping that they would speak to a certain audience, not offend them. What’s offensive or inappropriate is completely subjective and if you don’t like an ad that you see, it probably means that that ad wasn’t intended for you.

But then there is also the argument that these ads are placed in public places and everyone is subjected to their message. I approach this dilemma with a passive attitude. There are definitely ads out there that I find disturbing and would rather not find myself looking at. Some are product ads but many of them are for public service campaigns. Transport for London’s “Don’t let your friendship die in the road” campaign is one example. I really don’t appreciate looking up from my book during my daily commute and coming eye to eye with a dead teenager. Although it upsets me, I would never argue that these ads should be taken down. Though I do not benefit from this campaign, its target audience might.

As a student of communication studies as well as a mass media consumer, I believe that it is the job of the audience to choose which messages they digest and which they ignore. To paraphrase an old cliché, if I saw a poster on the underground saying “Go jump off a cliff. Everyone is doing it.” would I go right out and do it? No. Because I was born with a thinking, reasoning, rational brain and some common sense - just like everyone else.

In his manifesto, First Things First, Ken Garland discusses the graphic designer’s role in advertising. He argues that product advertising promotes “trivial purposes that contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity” and essentially that designers’ talents are better spent creating “useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication”. Personally, I agree with him. In my design career, I hope to be able to support myself creating social marketing and public service campaigns. However, there’s a lot of creativity and innovation to be found in product advertisements and I don’t judge designers who choose to go into that field. I think it’s a personal decision every designer has to make during their career. At some point you have to ask yourself what types of messages you want to communicate.