Junie Chow's Blog

It is a true statement when said that advertising is everywhere, especially in a particular case of ads being displayed in public washroom mirrors and in another case where the ad actually follows your every movement. These two cases were highlighted on http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/ by authors Tim Nudd, who wrote about the moving remote-controlled ad, and David Kiefaber, who wrote about the mirror advertisements.

Retrieved from http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/

First, about the mirror ads, companies “Clear Channel Outdoor” and “Mirrus” have collaborated to bring these mirror ads to some U.S. airports, like “O’Hare International Airport” in Chicago. David Kiefaber made clear his own opinion on the original article from http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0121-bathroom-ads-20110120,0,708194.story, stating “I don’t want to live in a world where the Geico gecko can watch me pee.” I agree with him because I feel that there’s a bit of inappropriateness to all of this. Though I can see the marketing opportunity to this as public bathrooms receives a consistent stream of people each day, I like to think of the bathroom as a private room separate from the outside world.

As for the other story, where Belgium shoppers were followed by a moving ad for “Alfa Romeo”, I find it totally ridiculous. I understand that the company wants the ad to stand out, because usually, in my experience, if that ad were not moving I would probably not see it. The moving aspect to it greatly increases the chance of potential consumers to pay attention to the advertisement. However, as shown in the video, it seems like the remote-controlled ad would become a nuisance to some people resulting in negative feelings for the company.

These are two examples of new advertising methods, which I feel are a bit too much, but there are probably others who think otherwise and view them as effective and unique.