08.18.08
Would YOU trust this?
I get a regular delivery of a design magazine; since they offered it to me for free. I don’t really read it as much as check out some of the interesting snippets of what advertisers are doing. Since I consider most of them to be the most vile of creatures - playing on our weaknesses, fears and image issues - I gotta keep an eye on them.
I was taken aback when I was looking at their latest self-congratulatory article (and it seems like EVERY issue has some sort of ‘awards’ fluff piece: 9 outta 10 sycophants agree; the Advertising that appealed to Most Internet Pervs is….) when I turned the page and saw this ad for an advertising technique:
For those who are too busy to click on the thumbnail: its a ‘Peel & Lick’ form of advertising. This one in particular is a ‘taste’ of Welch’s Grape juice.
Are these guys #^@%(^! kidding me? I’d just as soon take a syringe from a bum in Junkie Alley and jab it into my neck. This is a throwback to John Waters ‘Polyester’ which used Smello-vision:
Odors, especially Francine’s particularly keen sense of smell, play an important role in the film. To highlight this, Waters designed Odorama, a “scratch-and-sniff” gimmick inspired by the work of William Castle and the 1960 film Scent of Mystery, which featured a device called Smell-O-Vision. Special cards with spots numbered 1 through 10 were distributed to audience members before the show, in the manner of 3D glasses. When a number flashed on the screen, viewers were to scratch and sniff the appropriate spot. Smells included the scent of flowers, pizza, glue, gas, grass, and feces.
Does anyone else see the potential for evil here? ‘Hey, lets get people to try what they think is grape juice, but then switch it with 2 month old gym sock juice!’ Has anyone even tried these? What kind of weird cancer causing chemicals do they make these things out of? ‘Hey, lets add isoamyl acetate with potassium hydroxide and see if people will lick that!’
I’ll give away a free copy of Half Life 2: Episode One to anyone who will try it.
UPDATE: It seems I am not the only person who feels this way. Read page 2 to get the icky feelings…
