This ad for Time Magazine is a very compelling illustration of how images can speak for themselves and maybe actually don’t even need a copy. Self-explanatory advertising, so to say. The point of the two-worded copy is in fact obvious: it plays on the same emotion as the BBC ads “see both sides of the story“, namely that even (or maybe ‘especially’) in news, images can be deceiving. Seeing a picture like this immediately causes your audience to divide in two groups. That is why it’s important to read ‘Time Magazine’, to know the background of the image, to get context… to know ‘why’. Moving away from the ad itself as a topic and looking to the image, I must say it’s a very strong picture. The depicted soldier in distress is a real issue starter. It’s a captive, impressing image. Most war pictures are, but this one is one of the few ones I’ve seen that causes a dilemma inside my mind. Did he lose a buddy? Is he just tired? Maybe he doesn’t want to go to war? Maybe his mother died in the US? The picture fits exactly in the goal of Time’s ad. Challenge people to know more. To know why.
Agency unknown.
Thanks, Wim L.