A while ago, I wrote about UK motorway service station toilets.
Well a few weeks ago, I found myself back in one – not because I’m a pervert – but because I needed to use the ‘facilities’.
So I walked in, walked up to a urinal and as the ecstasy of ‘mid-flow’, I looked up and came face-to-face with this:
Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against penises – hell, I [allegedly] have one – but having a mans cock in his underpants at my eye level is not something I really find comfortable.
Almost as uncomfortable as being caught by a guy walking into the toilet and seeing me taking a photograph of this poster.
Apparently it was trying to communicate an incontinence product – and that’s all well and good – but I don’t know if this ‘execution’ is the best way to connect to the audience.
No, not because it is insulting, demeaning or a cause for unleashing your own inadequacies – but because I don’t think it communicates the audiences issue [or how they feel about the issue] or even the products benefit.
Now even though I’m 43, I am not incontinent [yet] … however, I have experienced times in my life where I’ve been literally bursting for a wee [yes, I said ‘wee’, deal with it] so I have some sort of appreciation regarding how stressful and confronting that is.
That sense of ‘danger’ or ‘fighting to keep control’ is horrible, so I can’t imagine how someone who suffers from incontinence must feel experiencing that situation every day.
And that’s why I find this ad so bad.
Not because they’ve put a man’s ‘package’ at the eye level of its audience … but because it doesn’t come from a place that demonstrates they have any understanding of the feelings of discomfort or confrontation people with incontinence [probably] go through, which has resulted in an ad that doesn’t communicate this product can give these individuals the confidence they seek.
In short, they’re shouting rather than communicating.
Or said another way, they’re craving attention rather than giving meaning.
What a load of pants.
[Boom Tish]