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.

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

"There is more to life than increasing its speed"

This poster is part of a wider project called ‘What is the city but the people?’ undertaken by Art on the Underground, the official arts program of London Underground, whose aim is to engage with the public by presenting contemporary art in the Tube.

The project ‘What is the city but the people?’ gravitated on a booklet of the same title compiling famous quotes; the title itself being a line from a Shakespearean tragedy.
The booklet was passed on to train drivers for them to read to customers through the trains’ PA system. The point being, I guess, to raise a smile and even some philosophical questions among the Tube’s passengers.

Pleasant as it is to be greeted by the Mahatma’s wisdom and encouraged to smile –and maybe to think too– for a purpose different of buying, the Tube’s sponsored art initiatives are inescapably that: sponsored. Thus, to some extent they are subject to London Underground’s agendas and will always work to create a positive view of the Tube amongst its customers; lo, the cause of marketing.

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Art on the Underground: "There is more to life than increasing its speed"
Wood Green Underground Station

Would cash have been a better gift? yes!

Now I know what I'm getting my family for Christmas: a money transfer through Western Union!
Oh well..., they know their target market better, this is London, you know.

[Wikipedia says that in 2006 London's foreign-born population was 2,288,000 (31%) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London#Demography)]

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Western Union: Would cash have been a better gift? yes!
Wood Green bus stop
London