Getty Images

21 March, 2009

by Serge

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Wow. Ok. So I’m a little taken aback – I’d be very, very surprised, if, um, certain versions of these ads every made it to the streets of India. To think that I was a little concerned about European denim advertising!

I’ll take a stab at it, all the same.

Tom Stoppard once said, in his post-existentialist Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, “We are tied down to a language that makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style.” I know that this isn’t the point of the Getty Images ads; but they make it all the same.

Our words have countless meanings, that too often they don’t make sense or are misunderstood in print. Only sound, accents, emphasis can make our language mean, well, anything.

Simple terms refer to a multitude of things – case in point: bush, pot, crack and blow. Although why they could go explicit for pot and bush, but not blow, is beyond me. And as some interesting commentators mentioned, they could have gone further with the ‘blow’ concept (Monica Lewinsky was suggested). I was also informed that the alleged ‘crack’ in the image is actually ‘blow,’ confusing the concept further. I wouldn’t know; I’m no expert!

All the same, I think these are effective. I’m not sure how the ex-President feels about his face being in such close proximity to certain feminine body parts, but I’m sure if he cares, we’ll all hear about it.

I suppose the Bush-bashing advertising has been going on long enough for him to stop caring. But honestly, even I was shocked to see these. And there was no need for them to be controversial – I mean, its Getty Images. What are they trying to say?

Besides the fact that their ‘search’ function must be quite useless…

Advertising Agency: Rediffusion Y&R, Mumbai, India
Creative Directors: Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Ramanuj Shastry, Rahul Mathew
Art Director: Meghana Ogale
Copywriter: Karan Amin
Account Director: Trayambak Dasgupta
Published: December 2008