As an industry with a tendency to overthink things, I think this agency is bringing simplicity back. And with good reason – the marketing department might be lucky to score a cursory glance from the average consumer, and so, the message conveyed in that split second is all the PR they’ll ever generate. Instead of intense and complex images, the stark and recognisable graphic in this FedCup gets the message across instantly.

It is rare for me to enjoy an advertising that embraces these clichés – I mean, hot pink and curves for women’s tennis? But I suppose there’s no reason to criticise if it makes its point, and it does. My initial reaction was that the extreme femininity in the ad was a little unnecessary for a sport like tennis, which isn’t necessarily male-dominated. I then realised that I had never heard of the FedCup, supposedly the premier world event in female tennis.

With full recognition of the need to appeal to female sportsfans, you would think that the ad agency would have a little more credit for my gender. Something a little less obvious than the hot pink could have gone a long way, and using some Barbie-fembot like body for the image could also be misconstrued. Then again, maybe I am over-analysing – another tendency of the industry.

So it’s smart and to the point, but it’s also a tad clichéd. I suppose it could go either way – let’s call it deuce, and be done with it.

Creative Director / Art Director / Illustrator: Vladimir Petrovic
Published: November 2008

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