Apple iPad

Here some warm subjective camera shots of idealised Apple iPad users according to Apple. Or something like the following proposition:

'Are you a (cultured and well-informed) reader of The Economist, a (cool and up-to-date) Twitter user, a (savvy and enlightened) follower of TED talks and a (maybe nostalgic) friend of books? Are you (do you like to think of yourself as) all or either of the above?
Then you, who enjoy being all these things while sitting leisurely at home or at a trendy and generic café with sofas, wearing brand-new casual clothes, with your nicely air-brushed skin tone…, you must be an iPad person (buyer)'.

By the way, the ads bring an illustrative take on our contemporary cultural landscape, again, according to Apple: the titles of books we like to read (or just buy), e.g. Nineteen Eighty Four (now that’s a surprise); the people we like to listen to, e.g. Jamie Oliver (still?); the issues that we are concerned about (or supposed to be), e.g. climate change; the nothingness we like to spread via Twitter, e.g. a classic: “Just ate the best sandwich. Ever” (!).

__________
Apple: iPad
Euston Station (LU)
London

I am the rules

A year ago it was “the revolution of you”. Now we’ve moved to a first-person narrative with “I am the rules”. Either way, “you” and “I” are, of course, no other than constructed characters by the authors of these stories, i.e. the advertisers.
In this sense, what strikes me the most about this type of advertising discourse is how perilously blurred the distinction between fiction and reality has become; how by sheer repetition, over-exposure, and persuasive enchantments, the audiences of these advertising messages might end up ‘forgetting’ that those “you” and “I” are not really themselves.

Remember there was a time when marketing was mainly about the marketed product? Nike, for example, are experts at having moved on from that stage. Certainly, they still sell actual shoes (or sportswear in general), but what they effectively market is attitude, values and identity. I’d struggle if I had to explain this to my grandfather; yet, I’m in wonder that this fact has become so incontrovertible these days.

Most perverted of all is the appearance today that power has been given to the citizens, now christened as the new agents of capitalism. But this, it seems to me, is rather the product of a narrative device, a story that it’s being told by a narrator’s voice which has made its way inside of us; a voice saying stuff like for instance “I am the rules”; a first-person narrative voice which we risk taking for our own.

__________
Nike / Foot Locker: I am the rules
Euston Station (LU)
London

We are London. Are you?

Just the tip of the iceberg of this multimedia 'We are London' campaign.

Quite a branding stretch here for German sporting-cum-fashion goods makers Adidas, carrying out a completely localised campaign in London, closely targeting the homeboys they hope to convert/keep loyal to the spell of their global brand.

Appealing to that something so reassuring as it's the sense of belonging, addressing the audience with a direct question -"Are you?"-, the advertisers have taken this campaign to Facebook and YouTube. Just follow the link in the poster if you are curious -you'll learn that the kid in the above poster is grime MC Maxsta from East Ham, one among several success stories of local kids from non-postcard London areas who have done well in the hip-hop scene and have agreed to tell us all about it while touring us around their 'hoods' wearing Adidas clothes.

I have to believe that this grim London / hip-hop scene / social media stuff gotta be the cool thing, but I'm afraid I'm just too old to know. It's not that I'm not a Londoner, you know what I'm sayin'?

__________
Adidas: We are London. Are you?
Euston Station (LU)
London

Be younique

The copy reads: "Andrea Garbolino. Contest Hero. Turin. Be younique".
The story, I read at the Police dedicated webpage, is that a contest was organised to find the advertisement face for 2010. The participants, supposedly fans of Police accesories, had to submit pictures of themselves and their 'youniqueness'. And it was this chap who got it in the end. So it is a 'you' who makes the brand identity here -or something like that, you know.

__________
Police: Be younique
Leicester Square Station

Be the revolution of you

There you go. This is branding today. Not about what the brand does for you, what it says about you or what you share with the brand; the brand, my friend, is you (or seemingly so they'd like you to think).

__________
Nike: Be the revolution of you
Waterloo Station