I was reading Los Angeles Magazine a few days ago when I came across this ad.
Beautiful woman in fancy red dress, I thought. Then I turned the page. It was only later on when I went back through the magazine to find an ad to post that I stopped to examine the ad.
Here’s the headline:
Sheets
too glamorous
to stay in bed.
Sheets, something about glamorous sheets. I don’t see sheets. WTF?
Then I get it. The model isn’t wearing a dress. She’s wearing a sheet.
Why do ad agencies fall over themselves to be clever? Nine out of ten times, clever is confusing. Confusion doesn’t sell products.
Note to advertiser: You sell bed sheets. Show a bed. With sheets. Don’t show a sheet that looks just like a dress because a sheet that looks just like a dress is a dress. If you want to be clever, show one end of the sheet draped around a model like a fancy dress, and the other end of the sheet laid out on a bed. At least the reader will be able to make the connection.
