Creating the classic image ad

You've heard people lament that something is a "lost art" – for example fist-fighting, lately replaced by shoot-outs. Another lost art is graciously receiving neighbors who drop in while you are screaming.

But one art has not been lost – spending gobs of money for beauteous image ads in The Economist. (...the magazine that casts grubby profit-seeking in the voice of a witty Englishman.)

Corporate image advertising follows certain conventions (listed below with the ad for the mining company Vale). One key is to open with a blunt, brave-sounding statement like this: "Just like you, we're inquisitive. We question things. Always asking ourselves: What will tomorrow bring?" Then the image ad moves to predictable claims ("We use innovative technology") until you reach a thundering conclusion, in this case a veiled threat: "Vale. There is no future without mining."


This particular ad copy is partly written on light background so that it can't be read... probably because everyone agreed that it's so boring ("We're also present in forests") and so trite ("We don't have all the answers") that no one cares whether readers can make out the words. The main purpose of image advertising, after all, is to spend gobs of money in The Economist to appear in the company of witty Englishmen.

brandsinger