As with any Lee Clow campaign there has been a lot of hype, discussion, and yes, some criticism.
Out-of-home has always been in my opinion a medium best used when treated like a canvas versus a poster, post-card, newspaper ad or even a online banner. An artist approaches a canvas with a very specific outcome in their mind, be it create a feeling of fear, energy, sadness convey a politcal message, inspire introspective searching or deliver shock.
Out-of-home in it's greatness should only ever have a job to deliver one message just the same. If you want to convery a benefit and price, move-on. If the outcome of the campaign is to successfully convey benefit and price, then you can use many different mediums and creative to accomplish this as a campaign. The OOH can be used to solely communicate the benefit, print can convey both and retail can be used to focus just on price. With a properly created media plan and accompanying creative you will; as a holistic campaign achieve your objectives. Every ad will not communicate the entire marketing communication objective.
I just realized this post turned into a rant on the proper usage of the medium...which it was meant to be at one point, but anyway back on track.
Lee Clow and his minions at Chiat were tasked with the launch of a new Pepsi logo. I love the campaign and I think they purposely delivered a very Andy Warhol feeling. The king of iconic artwork is very entrenched in the mind of Gen Y and older and the freshness of the campaign truly stands out and in a very simple manner showcases the logo while still "saying something".
As I mentioned earlier out-of-home should be the most basic, the tightest to true art out of the campaign outputs. Their purpose needs to be a single and compelling message. In this case the message Lee went with was not saying "new" or "introducing" it was getting the world to associate the logo with pop, soda or soda pop and recongize it as the new face of Pepsi without saying "new".
His selection of iconic visuals (excuse the pun) POP. I notice them on every street, even within a crowded environment like Toronto's Dundas square or Gardiner Expressway the first ad I see is Pepsi. It accomplishes one simple job and uses "pop" culture references and influence to deliver wonderful creative.
And they have been in this area before.
My Warhol:Clow collage:
