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| H&M Poster Ads,
Advertising |
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| Media,
Jerry Carpenter,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F1
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Apologies for the following burst of unfounded, petty vitriol. In a week where things have gone hopelessly to shit in the Middle East, focusing one’s personal anger at an advertising campaign seems pretty superficial. If you have a problem with that, better stop reading – go grab a broadsheet or something.
Still here? Thanks. Ok, it’s just a bunch of ads for the Fashion shop H&M. One set features a shapely brunette Jade Jagger (daughter of Bianca & old rubber lips Mick) sporting various choices from the Autumn collection. The Other set features Tim Roth. Urk. Tim Roth gurneying moodily in a leather jacket. Tim gurneying moodily in a nice beige jumper. Tim gurneying moodily in some comfortable looking slacks. Nothing out of the ordinary here, just a wee slice of celebrity endorsement. Nothing distressingly unaesthetic to start any alarm bells ringing. So what’s my beef ?
I’m a two tube station guy commuting wise, and at either end these ads are everywhere. So the first time I come across them, I’m unfazed, I just clock the fact that Tim is doing his depressingly familiar hard man expression, and the jacket he’s wearing is a pretty reasonable price.
Then I see them again the next day. Then again. And again. Then it dawns on me that the constant repetition of these images is beginning to put me in somewhat of a foul mood. I begin to find alternative exits from the station just so I don’t have to look at them. To no avail of course, because they are EVERYWHERE.
I’m talking about Tim to someone one night, going over his past films, and I’m surprised to find myself slagging off stuff he’s in – stuff that I previously liked. I stop wearing my leather jacket, just to remove the Tim-ness from myself. For the first time in ages I cycle to work, perhaps not just to avoid Tim, but it is a large contributing factor in my decision. I stop short of actual property destruction – because even an angry nerd has his limits, and also because those poster frames are damned hard to lever open.
What can design and marketing types in the advertising industry learn from my long dark fortnight of the soul? Not to hire anymore Brit Pack ‘talent’ for their photo shoots? To stop the cult of unhappy facial expressions in favour of models smiling and being jolly? That might go some way to easing my pain, but I think this H&M incident has been a one-off random madness trigger, not dissimilar to the playing card motif that drives the main character in ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ into an assassination frenzy. But without the guns. As soon as the campaign passes, I’ll be fine again, and ready to spread my spleen over a wider field of cultural targets. I’ll probably start wearing autumnal clothes again. However if I ever bump into ol’ Tim on the street and I’m packing the G-10 repeater BB pistol I won’t be held responsible for my actions. Sorry Tim.
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