What is the first thing that comes to mind when I mention advertising? Is it a Coca Cola commercial? Or perhaps a billboard showcasing the latest Audi model? Although most advertising centres around selling a fake promise of enriching your life through things, I myself appreciate the kind of advertising which empowers communities, makes one think a little deeper and has a long-lasting effect.
A great example of this is the anti-bullying campaign produced by BIMM for the Canadian Safe Schools Network. Ads featuring slogans such as ‘You’re like a vacuum cleaner, you suck’ targeted journalists, bloggers and other ‘influencers’ in the country. Through their retargeting strategy, they then showed the ads again and again to the same audience, a bit like when you keep seeing ads for that pair of boots you browsed at but didn’t purchase. Just desserts in my opinion. 😀
Another impactful campaign which struck a chord was the Always #LikeAGirl campaign which was aimed to help young adolescent girls see their potential to achieve anything they want. I think it even helps grown women question how they see themselves.
The last example of advertising that may make you think is this anti-smoking campaign by Thai Health. As adults we want to protect and guide our young children, and yet are ignorant to the harm we cause ourselves. Surely the only way we can truly make an impact to young people is by changing our own destructive behaviour?
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