Greatest advertising goal is to create a bond within target audience and the restricting confines of a commercial ads. Semiotics is a solution for advertisers which promises to create the connotation between customers’ experience and the brand.
In nothing flat, there are a lot of brands using meaningful print ads to impress their target customers. It’s clear that the goal of branding ads is to drive sales by associating products and services to make customer’s experience and brand are virtually synonymous. I want to introduce you guys a successful print ad created by Olgivy.
The print ad is part of the “No More Abuse” campaign by the King Khalif Foundation, an official charity set up in memory of an earlier 1970s monarch. The purpose of this campaign was against domestic violence in Saudi Arabia. I would like to ‘read’ this print ad in 3 dimensions: its denotation, connotation and myth around it.
Firstly, the print ad illustrates a women in a niqab with a badly bruised eye staring into the camera attached with the message “some things can’t be covered”. The whole picture is covered by dark black except for the woman’s eyes.
In the connotation dimension, Fadi Saad, managing director of Memac Ogilvy in Riyadh had a comment on the print ad that: “The veil does not only hide women’s abuse, but it’s also a representation of the social veil behind which a lot of societal deficiencies hide”.
In another point of view, the print ad demonstrates the miserableness of Saudi Arabia’s women. The picture is covered by dark, it feel like there will be no way to escape and no hope for women’s right if we don’t take any action now. The suffering eyes contact can tell many things about women’s pain and strength. They get used to being abused but it doesn’t mean they do not try to fight for their right every single day.
In order to make this print ad more clarified, we should take a look at Saudi Arabia’s social situation. Saudi Arabia, a country which 16 to 50 percent wives suffer some kind of spusal abouse and its law does not criminalize domestic violence or spousal rape. Reporting about domestic violence somehow “may be seriously underreported”, according to the State Department report.
With predigous effort, the campaign has taking a big step in revoluting the authorities to support such a drive which given evolution in the country. There are many positive sign slowly appearing in Saudi Arabia. For instance, Saudi women competed in the Olympics for the first them or for the first time, King Abdullah appointed 30 women to the consultative Shura Council.
In conclusion, I belive that a meaningful print ad can change many thing in target customer’s belief, awareness or even action. The most important thing is how to create a print ad that is the bridge between the brand’s viewpoints and the target customer’s experience and belief.
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