Think About It

Once upon a time, M!X restaurant in Brookhaven was a place to see and be seen. In more ways than one.

The owners outfitted this hip tapas bar with high-tech bathrooms so funky, some people considered them reason enough to check out the place. Here’s the hook: the bathroom doors were made of colored glass. When they were unlocked, you could see right through them. When someone went in and locked the door, the glass frosted over for privacy. Very cool concept.

Alas, some M!X patrons found the lock a bit tricky, so they gave up and just went about their, um, business. No lock meant no frost, which meant anybody with line of sight to the bathroom got an eyeful.

Sloan’s, an ice cream shop in West Palm Beach, Fla., has the same set-up for its bathrooms. There, too, the patrons sometimes neglect to lock up, creating an inadvertent peep show. And at Sloan’s, the accidental voyeurs aren’t adults enjoying a night at the bar, but kids looking for nothing naughtier than a scoop of rocky road.

The owner of Sloan’s told a reporter the glass doors have been worth the occasional embarrassing moments, plus the $30,000 he paid to outfit his two bathrooms. He said people come in all the time to see the bathrooms and end up buying ice cream. Indeed, among the online reviews of Sloan’s, you’ll find as many recommending the bathrooms as the ice cream.

Nevertheless, we question whether this is really the best marketing tool for Sloan’s. Bathrooms that sometimes bare all may drive away families with kids – people who are more likely to become loyal, repeat customers than the techno-thrill seekers who stop by to see the bathrooms in action.

It’s only human to get excited by new technologies, be they bathroom doors or iPhone applications. But it’s important to look beyond the gee-whiz factor and evaluate the fit with your markets and your brand.

Put simply, technology that’s cool isn’t necessarily cool for you. Forget that simple truth, and you could really get caught with your pants down.

It’s regrettable when an outdoor advertisement distracts drivers. But it’s plain incomprehensible when the offending billboard is one which urges drivers to pay attention to the road.

The subject of driver complaints is a billboard sponsored by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department. It features a photograph of a young woman on a cell phone and a mind-boggling 16 words of text – more than double the recommended number of words for an outdoor ad – cautioning drivers about distractions. [See the billboard.]

We imagine drivers lose their focus as they try to make out the small print at the top of the sign, which reads, “Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. reminds you...” Removing this phrase from the billboard would make the sign much more readable. Of course, that would never fly politically, since sheriffs typically like to see their names in 3-foot-high letters.

We just cringe when we see design that undermines the intended message. We’re reminded of another prime example of design clashing with the communication objective. A while back, the Atlanta Press Club held a meeting to discuss avian flu. The speaker was the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. His message was simple: “Be prepared, but don’t panic.” Yet each guest received a press kit that included a surgical mask. It was, no doubt, intended to be clever, but it struck us as inciting just the sort of overreaction the speaker wanted to discourage.

It’s so important to remember that words can only do so much. If the words are in conflict with the way a piece is physically put together, most often it’s the tangible design that leaves the more lasting impression. A nonprofit organization trying to show good stewardship of funds shouldn’t print its annual report on vellum. And a sheriff trying to encourage safe driving shouldn’t put up a billboard that runs people off the road.

This is a full-color ad that appears on the back cover of a 70-page technology magazine. Ok, I'm all for unexpected or even mildly shocking imagery to grab one's attention, but the image should at least communicate the desired concept, convey positive brand attributes, speak to a targeted audience or make a point that supports the copy.

Even if we allow room for disagreement over the visual and the message, is it too much to ask for some adherence to good design principles? Or is bad design part of the creative strategy as well? I can't figure out if this ad is trying to be so wrong as to prove a point (although I'm not sure what that point is), or if it's just one big hot mess from start to finish.

If I have to ask myself these questions, then my guess is the only thing this ad accomplished was to confuse others who had the misfortune of viewing it as well. Would it have cost any more, or been any less effective to create a more positive message? At the very least, the ad could have been more purposefully designed as "tongue-in-cheek" as I suspect was the goal.

Instead, not only did I lose my taste for this company, I lost my appetite too. 

The headline on the half-page ad in Wednesday’s Living section caught my attention.

“Do Your Hardwood Floors Look Like Deadwood?” it asked in big, bold type.

It just so happens that we have some less-than-stellar hardwood floors in our house. So I was curious what sort of flooring miracle this ad was hawking.

My eye headed straight for the proof – the image marked "After.” But all I saw was a black rectangle. That’s it. From edge to edge, just black, black, black.

I was puzzled. I looked at the “Before” image. It wasn’t much better, but if I used my imagination, I could sort of make out a hardwood floor marred by scratches and scuffs.

Using that picture for context, I gathered that the “After” picture was supposed to show a pristine, deep-colored floor with a terrific luster to it. I also gathered that this ad must have been designed in color, and had probably looked just swell that way.

But in the grayscale world of newsprint, that beautifully restored hardwood floor went totally dark. Indeed, the scratches and scuffs were gone, but the rest of the floor had gone with them!

The tragedy here is not that the folks at Floor Revive missed out on my measly $20. The tragedy is that they forked over big bucks for a half-page ad in a major daily newspaper and then didn’t bother to adjust the images for grayscale printing.

It’s easy – and cheap – to take an ad that you designed for one publication and send it as-is to another publication. So why spend the money to revisit an ad every time you plan to run it in a new place? The answer is as obvious as black and white.

"YOUR NEW 2007 IKEA CATALOG IS INSIDE."

Emblazoned on a field of bright yellow, this headline screamed out at me from the bag wrap of my Sunday newspaper.

"You should be very excited," the paragraph of copy began. I read on:

Why, you ask? Because of all the new products and lower prices inside. And because this catalog is the only catalog we'll send you all year. Why, you ask again? Well, we don't believe in being wasteful. Junk mail in particular makes us upset. Steam-shooting-out-of-our-ears upset. Other companies send you different catalogs every week. Actually, they're the same catalog, but with different covers to make you think "Golly gee-whiz! Something new and fun and exciting!" But it isn't. We make one catalog a year, not twenty. This helps us save on paper. Savings we then pass on to you. Savings like more affordable EXTORP sofas and PAX wardrobes. Savings like more trees. Savings like less junk mail and less steam shooting out of your ears. So celebrate. You're holding the solutions guide for a better everyday life. Keep it handy for great ideas and inspiration to improve your home throughout the year. Today is a very exciting day.

I read every word on that yellow bag. When I was done, I tore into the newspaper and rifled through it until I found the catalog. This, despite the fact that I've never shopped at IKEA. And despite the fact that I don't have the first clue what an EXTORP sofa is. Frankly, the phrase "EXTORP sofa" makes me think of Judy Jetson sprawled out, watching holographic television and popping a few after-school snack pellets. And yet, there I was, digging for this catalog like it was buried treasure.

How could IKEA make its catalog so irresistible to someone like me, who has no relationship with its brand?

1. It created a sense of urgency. It's now or never. Find and save the catalog inside this bag - or be without one for the whole year.
2. It established value. IKEA doesn't classify its catalog as a price list. No, it's "the solutions guide for a better everyday life."
3. It used humor to establish a rapport. Although I didn't know the first thing about IKEA, its personable language and comical phrases ("steam-shooting-out-of-our-ears upset") made it the retail equivalent of Chandler Bing - someone clever and fun that I'd like to get to know.
4. It provided a brand introduction. Using resources wisely and protecting the environment are among IKEA's top corporate ideals. By raising the issue of junk mail, IKEA gave me insight into its values while making its "one catalog a year" message believable as more than a marketing ploy.