READY MADE #39 (The Nike shoe).
I found this advertising on 15 November 2002.
In the side page there was a headline with the title "Storms and snow in the North Italy, sultriness without stopping in the South." The next day, in Venice the tidal wave has reached 147 cm, in Valtellina landslides isolated two villages, and bad weather produced also many damages in the remaining country. Before publishing an advertising that asserts "The weather forecasts are useless" they had better to consult them.
So, to avoid a troublesome sensation of timing inappropriateness (an opposition from a post hoc, ergo propter hoc) and the idea that Nike shoes bring bad luck.
However, the message is ambiguous. The first line within the image "The weather forecasts are useless" is a clear emotional opposition to the commune feeling, which sees the weather forecasts as tool to reduce the fear and the damage of a weather catastrophe. Since everybody has memories of negative images of bad time, and such images last more in memory those of the good time, such a statement has fewer possibilities to be accepted. Even if it means that the weather forecasts are fallacious, a false affirmation, in general.
The second line, with the Nike symbol, says "Enjoy the weather." To do this, they are enough Nike shoes, one of which is reproduced among little pieces of stuff (are they water drops from a puddle?). Then for the spatial contiguity (A Nike shoe and the bad weather) it should go to justify the uselessness of the weather forecasts for anyone who wears Nike shoes, as it happens in "Athletes world."
This third line drives to an identity by similarity that does not balance the preceding oppositions. The whole advertising is confusing, and very little persuading
Aldo Grasso, a spot reviewer, on Corriere Economia dated 18.11.2002, wrote that the relating spot is well done. This is further evidence that a spot derived image does not always work.
Ready made
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