General Tomfoolery: February 2008 Archives

I was on my way to work, this morning, when I looked up at an advertisement on the subway. It seemed like a normal ad for some kind of pharmaceutical. A happy father and son were posed beside each other and clearly the drug was the reason for their contentment. Then I actually read the text and was confused and amused.

'My son used to have his own hopes and aspirations. Now he has mine. Thanks Obay!'

Huh? Looking around the subway car, I could see that there were a couple more ads and even more bizarre (or less, depending on your understanding of viral marketing) is that there was no website attached to the ad. Looking it up on the internet, people are hypothesizing that this is by Ontario Colleges, for some kind of parental pressure awareness campaign and that the idea is to get people talking and blogging (mission accomplished assholes. I'll play my part.) about it.

The thing I like most about these campaigns is the unexpectedness and hilarity of being presented with a distorted version of reality. The actually message is usually a disappointment, when you find out what it's for.