Is the future of advertising fake?
Surrealism is winning in the age of instant attention. But does the art of deception hold real influence? We Are Social’s executive creative director, Ben Clare, weighs in on this technologically driven phenomenon.
As technology continues to transform every aspect of our daily lives, marketers have seized upon a captivating trend this year, leveraging the surreal to stop thumbs and win hearts for their brands.
If you haven’t seen London’s iconic Big Ben dripped out in a North Face jacket or Maybelline cosmetics’ eyelash-donning trains or French fashion label Jacquemus’ inflatable handbags, you’re rapidly becoming the global exception.
These aren’t real ads mind you – they’re surreal, eye-catching CGI creations adopted by an ever-expanding cohort of lifestyle and fashion brands. And, they’re taking over cities across the world. Or, to the untrained eye, appear to be.
Blurring the boundaries between the palpable and the artistic, this new form of reality-bending media is a powerful one for marketers. When executed with finesse, the seamless juxtaposition of the surreal and the mundane compels individuals to stop their scrolling and spend an extra few seconds thinking ‘Did that really happen? That can’t be legit?’
Interesting puff piece for We Are Social. Arguably the very thing they are advocating for could be the end of content agencies. If people think that this is content than what’s the point of engaging a specialist content agency. storytelling still needs to be at the forefront. this is not story telling