The ad I chose to critique is a USPS ad in the Feb. 2008 issue of Wired. The ad is a picture of a middle-aged man with a stern face. The caption above the man says, “surprises? i don’t like aurprises. do i look like i like surprises?”
I think the ad is effective mostly because of the man and the face he is making. One thing I think that is a little bit wierd about the ad is that the beginning of the sentences and the word “i” are not capitalized in the ad. That kind of bothered me becasue I am kind of a freak about grammar and punctuation.
I also think the ad is effective because a lot of people are really frustrated by the process of sending packages, and this ad is acknowledging this and vowing to make it better and as hassle-free as possible.
There is nothing really visually arresting in the ad, but it is simple and it works.
what do you think it means that they used lower case characters? Surely it was done on purpose — what does it say?
I am not really sure why the letters weren’t capitalized, but obviously for the purpose of de-epmhasizing “i.” Maybe by de-emphasizing I, it makes people feel like they are not the only ones that are fruastrated by the shipping process. I really don’t know, but it bugged me.