Over the years General Electric has run many extraordinary television commercials and print advertising that paled by comparison. No big surprise considering its longtime agency, BBDO, has always excelled at TV (and at locking up all the best commercial directors, too).
But I just stumbled across a GE print ad that suggests this may be changing. The actual headline and design of the ad are nothing special. But across the top, serving as sort of the main visual, is a very cute idea.
Running from left to right is one of those lines we’ve all seen on a cardiogram with equally spaced peaks representing indivudual heart beats. In this ad three of the peaks (or heartbeats) have call-outs. The first one on the left reads: “VCT scan begins.”, then six beats later, the peak is labeled: “VCT scan ends.” And finally, the last peak’s call-out reads: “Patient says, in disbelief: That’s it?”.
Such a nice way of driving home the true, human benefit of GE’s latest, high-tech scanning device, which apparently can do its job in just six heartbeats. Amazing what a little empathy and insight can do to increase an ad’s ability to engage and charm.
Now, if we could just talk GE into dumping its “Imagination at work” theme line and going back to “We bring good things to life” we’d really be making progress.
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