Shoe? What Shoe?
Commuting downtown, you are constantly inundated with advertisements on billboards. We even have some billboards in PoCo now, but at least they're only advertising realtors and CD's.
Billboards in general drive me nuts. There's that one by my bus stop that is 8 stories high with 3 girls linking arms and carrying lots of bags. They're smiling of course, because they've just spent hours and hours at the mall. If I were in that billboard, I'd be grimacing.
Anyways. Slogan on that billboard? "260 sales, One phone". What?!? It bugs me every morning because it makes no sense.
The ones that really bug me though, are the "fashion" ads. I understand that companies use stick figures on a billboard to make their product sell more, but one particular ad is completely ridiculous, and has been bugging me for quite some time.
Feast your eyes on this:
Hmmm. Umm. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't ALDO a SHOE company? Oh, I see. Yes it is. It even has the website www.aldoshoes.com on the ad.Well...since ALDO is a SHOE company, should there not be a SHOE on the ad??? Alas, not a single shoe to be seen. They've even seemed to purposely cut off the stick figures at the ankle so we can't see the shoe.
What's this supposed to accomplish? Is the consumer supposed to think, "Oooh, how mysterious, it must be beautiful". Or maybe, "Wow, maybe if I wear any ALDO shoes I can look like her and be stared at by some guy in a suit that's 2 sizes too small!".
Maybe. But here's what it makes me think: "If your shoes are not pretty enough to put on the advertisement, they obviously aren't worth the effort of checking them out at the store".
Here's another one of my ALDO favourites.
Is there a shoe? Oh, I think I see a few. Or is she barefoot?
Unfortunately I couldn't find the bus ad for the one above. There's a photo of the shoe (gasp), then a photo of a closeup of Miss. Stick's face, and then this one. It would be nice if the product just spoke for itself without having the other 2 meaningless shots added to it.
I went to the ALDO website to see if maybe they sell other things than shoes, like tight suits and mini dresses. And when I got there, all the photos are of architecture! Check it out for yourselves. They are beautiful shots, but some on people! Shoe company or architects?
I did find that they sell more than just shoes. Bags, belts, and accessories...all which are omitted from the above shots.
ARGH! Down with ALDO. They don't sell size 5 anyway.
posted by Nancy @ 12:20 PM
6 Comments:
If I was a shoe-shopper (and I'm not which is very obvious in that I only own a couple of pairs), I wouldn't shop there! Too expensive. I've been in there, I think, once before, and everything was over-priced.
I hate to admit that I kinda like Aldo's advertising. Aside from the stick figures, I like that the design is clean and eye-catching, and that it's very recognizable.
My favorite thing about Aldo's advertising is that in the posters at the actual storefronts, they don't even have to have their name. They just hang a giant close-up of one of the models from their ads, and you know that it's Aldo. That's pretty good brand recognition when you can identify a brand from the model or architecture.
I also love that for a long while, they were spending their advertising space to campaign for AIDS awareness. Nothing to do with shoes, nothing to do with their product, nothing to do with their sales. I thought that was pretty noble.
I do hate the stick figure models though. I think the only company right now that isn't using stick figure models, however, is Dove. I really like Dove's campaign for real beauty. Excellent ad campaign. Have you seen the evolution film? Go check it out!
I actually can't stand ALDO either. I bought shoes there once and got them home and they didn't fit quite right with the socks I would be normally wearing them with. I tried to take them back and they refused, saying once they leave the store they can't take them back. They suggested I buy these weird sticky things to put in the back to make them fit better. It just made them worse. Back and forth we went. I still have the darn shoes. They sit in my closet, unused. Grrr...down with ALDO! I REFUSE to shop there now!
That's funny Ryan, I thought you were going to like the ads!
I Stopped shopping at Aldo years ago when they decided to go the hoity-toity direction...they try so hard to be up-scale but I usually find their shoes to be ugly....like most "fashion".
My fav. shoe stores are Payless, Shoe warehouse and Sears outlet Hooray for discount racks!
I hear ya on the bilboard thing, I can't stand most of them, especially the beer and car ones. There is a string of bilboards as you head out to the valley that I would love to knock down...I mean c'mon who needs to see that many ads for Tim Hortons?
Mmmmm.... donuts.
Sorry, can't think of anything to add to the conversation, just figured I'd pop in and say hello!
The funniest thing about this whole conversation is it's got you talking about Aldo an awful lot. And, isn't that what advertising is all about?
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home