I’m ashamed to say it, but it took a long time for me to get these ads. I stared at the pictures for a while trying to figure where the ‘clever’ in these ads was hiding. I was very excited when I found it and had a great ‘AHHHH!!’ moment.

Aren’t they cool?

Firstly the photography is AMAZING! These are the pictures that I wished I took. Once again it falls into the questioning of this popular presence of, what I call, ‘dark photography’ and if you’re following entries by me (Sonia) particularly then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Advertisers seem to be choosing darker frames rather than bright shiny ones. I don’t know if its just the contrast/brightness on my screen, or my eyes, or even worse, just all in my head but it seems to be a rising trend. And it works.

Okay, admittedly in the first two stills the picture is meant to be dark to emphasize the creepiness of the basement and the darkness beside the firelight, but the last frame could have been bright, he’s in a park for goodness sakes! Maybe the graphic designer was just following a trend.

I’m also not quite sure why it works. Maybe because darkness arouses romanticism and the unknown, desire and yearning for what it is Other. Or maybe because it just looks cool.

Anyway, I think it’s clever and it looks cool. And I wish I could see the world in sound and maybe also that I had more time to sit in a park and feed pigeons.

Advertising Agency: Saint Bernadine Mission Communications Inc.
Creative Directors: Andrew Samuel, David Walker
Art Director: Jennifer Hicks
Photographer: Noel Hendrickson
Retouching & Production: Jack Griffin, Inc.
Published: March 2009

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