A New York City subway ad shows a photograph of an open oyster on the half shell with a small round white pill in it that looks like it says: "680" on it, and the headline, with one word on either side of the oyster, says: "Modern rocketry." I don't get it. A white pill with 680 printed on it does not compute for online pill identifying websites, but a pill with 680 on it is a narcotic pain medicine apparently, but it is neither round nor white. The oyster makes me think it's supposed to be related to male sexual potency? Then why not have the pill be the color and shape of a Viagra (blue, rounded and slightly elongated diamond shape*)? All men, and indeed probably everyone regardless of gender, surely would recognize that pill and its meaning. But since they didn't use a "little blue pill" I can't be sure of what the hell this ad means. And if they're trying to suggest sex, does this mean what you get from forhims.com will cause a man's penis to blast off of his pelvis and launch into space? That would most certainly get your attention, although the desirability of such an effect I think may be a bit limited. And so I still don't know what this ad means; and because it's so unclear to me, what reason would I have to go to forhims.com?
So the lesson here is: idiot-proof your ads so as not to waste your client's money or their (or perhaps also your) potential customers' time, otherwise idiots like me won't be able to understand them (unless it's some snobby specialized thing and you only want your target demographic to understand what you're trying to communicate, which may be the case here. But I am not a man who requires anything like Viagra (see asterisk below. Actually, I'm single, so I wouldn't need it anyway.), so maybe that's why I don't get it {if I'm even correct in my guess at what they're trying to say in this ad}.).
* Not that I would know what color or shape Viagra is: I've never used it. No, really, I swear...! Levitra and Cialis, maybe; but I would never do such a thing as use Viagra.**
** Because their advertising was always really lame and their product afforded such a great opportunity for really, really fun ads!***
*** Made you look. (Sorry, I couldn't resist. Endnote should have a key for that.)
