We don't do this. So we can afford to do this

Something that particularly struck me when I first observed advertising in Britain was how much it played with the 'cheeky'.

Cheeky as it is, the ad above also presents an interesting self-referential function of the advertising language, acknowledging a significant competence on the part of the public in understanding the way advertising works.

Here the advertisers take advantage of the great appeal that Formula 1 has nowadays without spending a penny in massive sponsoring accounts: the picture of the car gets our attention, even ignites our desire.

Then, they seem to be telling us how because they don't spend huge amounts in that shallow thing which is sponsoring a Formula 1 team, they can give us a better deal on their mobile communications product.

Also, by letting us find the obvious conclusion to their proposed cheeky syllogism, they allow us to feel a bit clever and a bit complicit, a basic tactic for seduction.

All to tell us that basically they'd give us back a 3% of our expenditure on their mobile services, an amount to be spent only on Tesco or affiliated partners, if we decided to let ourselves be enticed by their offer.

So this is what they do.

__________
Tesco Mobile: We don't do this. So we can afford to do this.
Lascotts Road, N22
London