Some middle aged council staff presumably sat in a boardroom and brainstormed the essential features this advert would need to alert today's yoof to the council's leisure services.- Jagged, uneven font on a graffitied-wall kinda background
- Teenagers striking annoying poses
- Funky web address with a "2" in place of "to"
- A string of snappy phrases belittling the reader in the slang of 1993
Just looking at it, I feel like I'm being bullied. Actually, after seeing it for a month, I've decided the quiet, pimply-looking guy on the left is being bullied. The gurning idiots next to him are shouting those catchphrases, the guy in the middle is laughing his head off, and dorky guy is just crying inside. It really is a nice impression of being 15.
Anyway, it's some comfort that in the unlikely event this advert peer-pressures any teenagers into checkin' it out, the web address leads here. If having to click "Child / Young Person" doesn't do it, the totally sad-case list of options (Family/Social support, Education/Learning, Disability Info?!) and the absence of anything so much as a jagged font will have them loggin' off before you can say Birmingham City Council is gay.
I don't get all the expressions from the kids at the bottom of the ad. Is there supposed to be some kind of dynamic between them?
ReplyDeleteThe site seems to have lots of good contacts, but parents would be more likely to find them useful imo.
This reminds me of those motivational "stay in school!" and "don't do drugs!" posters they used to have around when I was in high school, with neon colours and triangles and jagged lines that were supposed to appeal to my age group. But really only made me want to barf.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, by the way.