I make a point of avoiding advertising where I can. You know the sort of thing.. the 10 extra bits of paper stuffed into the TV guide, trying to sell me plug plants for the garden or a raincoat, or my favourite, the chair that tips people out! I avoid the A boards in streets too, helpfully pointing me this way or that to a store that I have no intention or interest in visiting. Equally pointless and misleading are the huge posters in shop windows informing me how I can save up to 75%. The most interesting and usually, strangely, always the smallest two words there, are “up to”. Well 1 % is “up to” 75 isn’t it. I have a better way guaranteed without fail to save 100%… don’t go in!
What does work for me is different, subtle, creative, dare I say artistic. Imagine the scene, I’ve just left the cathedral, it’s pouring with rain and I have no coat with me. I’m proceeding at speed, down a gently inclined street, bag of camera gear over shoulder – heading to the museum. The above window display stopped me in my tracks. I HAD TO STOP and take a photo. I knew it would be the regret “I wish I’d taken a photo of…” that day – so I did. If I was going to go into a store at that moment that would have been the one. To me it looked interesting. Below is the other window.
S.H.O.U.T. 