This is what happens when [marketing] people forget that to stand any chance of making people give the teeniest shit about you, you don’t communicate what you want people to know, you communicate what they want to know.
That said, I bet the person behind this was some media planner who told them:
“People riding the underground don’t want to make eye-contact with other passengers so they look around for things to occupy their attention, like long-copy ads. This is the perfect opportunity for us to run an ad that fully explains the symptoms of ADHD to a highly captive and engaged audience”.
I’m telling you, I can literally hear that being said.
Maybe it could have worked if the ad wasn’t addressing people in the first person.
Maybe it would be less bloody ridiculous if it started with the words, ‘Do you know someone who …’, but it didn’t, instead they used long-copy to try and connect with people who have an inability to focus on anything for more than a few seconds.
Shame on the media planner for only focusing on the medium not the audience.
Shame on the client for only focusing on what they want to say, not how they should communicate it.
Shame on the underground sales team for only focusing on their sales targets, not effectiveness.
And to anyone who say’s, “but you’re writing about it, so that proves its successful” … may I suggest you visit here, because you’ll find a place that appears to value disruption more than it does meaningful resonance.