These ads are a really good example of creativity. They show you that even if you have something as simple, and seemingly boring, as a sheet of x’s or o’s to start with, you can still make something beautiful out of it if you use your imagination.

At the risk of sounding like an after-school special (specifically the Magic School Bus): When you use your imagination, all of your dreams come true!

These ads actually remind me of a series of web comics called “A Softer World” (please enjoy). I first found out about them because they’re printed in the local alternative-paper that comes out every Thursday in my hometown of Halifax called “The Coast”.

The idea behind the comics is that they just take three pictures (or one picture cropped three times) and insert text to create a story. The hook is that, in this ‘softer world’, the natural laws of possible and impossible are much more forgiving. As a result, the comics include arrays of things that could never happen, but are presented with such an ironclad sincerity that you can’t help but believe that any one of them might happen to you within the next five minutes.

The thing about the comics that brings them to mind when I see these ads is that they’re essentially starting with this very simple thing, a picture (or set of 3 related pictures) which they then have to create an interesting story, or snippet of a story, around. It’s exactly the same as looking at an X and saying “What is this X when it’s not an X?”. You have to keep people coming back for more.

When plans go Awry.

Advertising Agency: AlmapBBDO, São Paulo, Brazil
Creative Directors: Marcello Serpa, Luiz Sanches, Dulcídio Caldeira
Copywriter: Andre Godoi
Art Director: Andre Gola
Producer: José Roberto Bezerra
Account Supervisors: Martha Almeida, Isabela Filippi
Advertiser’s Supervisor: Enrique Lipszyc
Published: February 2009

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