Advertising has long ceased to be merely a method of marketing of products. Sometimes people in an advertisement can see something so amazing that will stick into memory for long. It does not matter, whether such an ad will captivate a person with its absurd stupidity, illiteracy, or depth of the problem concerned.
It is no accident that endless streams of videos and thousands of pictures are so popular on the internet, discussions over new advertisement are rather heated, and cinemas show best advertisements. Creation of high-quality advertising is a work of talented creative team; and this process has literally intertwined with the art. Something similar happened with the pop-art which used images of consumer products. At the same time, advertising is a powerful weapon of impact on the psyche and the subconscious of an individual.
In this regard, social advertising is of great importance and is worth discussing. Art is a way of understanding and reflection of reality, the result of human creativity, of his spiritual culture. Similar things can be said about the social advertising. In my understanding, social advertising is an art to make people think, to shake person`s ideas and convince him of something important while breaking through the indifference and stereotypes. A good social advertisement is an art to force somebody to move from thought to action.
This may sound rather cruel. But, in my opinion, modern people cannot be easily surprised nowadays, which requires decisive measures, such as these three ad posters provided by PETA. Today it is rather difficult to surprise people. Such advertisement is art, which, in fact, makes people look inward. It is closer than we might think. And the truth is rather difficult to be perceived, moreover, when such truth breaks all stereotypes.
One of these posters is an advertisement raising awareness against poaching. It was created by PETA. Mainly this organization owns most of campaigns, in which celebrities undress in a sign that they feel comfortable in their own skin and they do not want to use animal skins for clothing (PETA, “About PETA”). The same approach is used on this poster. A beautiful model lying on a tree in snake`s skin shows how dull wearing of animals` skins by people is. The model by her example shows that this is not natural to see a woman lying on a tree just as not natural to see a person wearing snake`s skin jacket and walking on a street.
Creators of these three advertising posters hoped to convey the idea of the unspeakable suffering that animals are subjected to when they are killed to be used into human food. Advertisement creators wanted to demonstrate this problem to the society and say that all animals have the same right to live as all people in the world. Their main convincing message is to shift to vegetarianism. PETA organization came to the conclusion that people will never remember about the cruelty towards animals without such decisive advertisement which acts as shock therapy for the audience (PETA, “About PETA”).
Finally, it shall be noted that a well-made advertisement attracts people`s attention and remains in memory for a long time. This is exactly the effect that is needed to solve social issues. These three posters show that to make people think and inspire them to action is the very first step towards meaningful change.
Works Cited
PETA. “About PETA”. Peta.org. 2016. Web. 15 Jun. 2016. Available at [http://www.peta.org/about-peta/].
