Ineffective PSAs all over my commute

I don't know whether I'm naturally very aware of advertisements, or if Mad Men has made me that way. This one in particular seems to be everywhere, particularly at bus stops, and it really shouldn't be.

In case it's too blurry to read, the three lines are:

started going for short walks during lunch hour
stops ordering take-out and starts cooking healthy meals
just bought bikini that challenges some obscenity laws

Yikes. There are plenty of good points here about why this ad is completely mislead and offensive.

Obviously there are a lot of problems with the campaign in general, but I find--particularly when forced to stand next to this poster for any length of time--the word-choice extremely frustrating. The grammar is completely non-parallel and tense inconsistent. So who's responsible for placing this ineffective, offensive, and poorly constructed thing into my line of vision on a near-daily basis?

The Ad Council last year, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, launched a public service campaign that urges Americans to take small steps to lose pounds and inches. On the screen you see step 19 of a 120 small steps, all of which can be found on-line at www.smallstep.gov. The pro-bono work is by McCann New York and includes humorous ads showing the positive results that taking enough small steps might produce. (link)

Thank you DHHS for the wasted tax dollars and McCann for the shoddy copy and offensive/ineffective message.

Marketing religion

The other day I was distracted by an ad on the side of a passing Muni bus (it looked a lot like this one, but oranger). Apparently the ad is part of a medium-sized campaign sponsored by a bay area Islamic organization.

Their goal is to urge more non-Muslims to learn about Islam and help remove negative stereotypes.

"We're basically sick and tired of people labeling us, of defining us, framing us, so I think it's time for us to stand up and basically inform the American public of who we are and what is our true identity," said Muhammad Hanif with the Islamic Circle of the Bay Area.

I don't think I would have even given the ad a second thought if it hadn't been just a couple days before that I ran into this while riding BART:

"All viewpoints. One platform. Join the discussion," in the little blue text, and a link to the website www.godridesbart.com.

This one I gave some thought to (granted it was more difficult to ignore since I was stuck inside a BART car with it for half an hour). My reaction was complete confusion. Despite being a fairly drab advertisement, there's a lot going on here. Unable to figure out the connection between God's choice of public transit and his interest in American politics, I bit, and checked out the website.

It turns out this is not a BART campaign intended to guilt riders into upstanding behavior, but is in fact (as the blue text hints) a forum for religious debate. The main page entices you into one of three discussion topics including, "Can there be justice without God?" and "Do we really need marriage anymore?" The resources page has a list of informational links in categories: Atheist, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Other (coming soon).

So public transportation seems to be a popular target for the new religious marketing campaigns. There's no deception going on here, both campaigns are forthcoming with their mission (at least, after you've visited the site): the first, to improve the public image of Islam, and the second, to encourage debate on God.

What's most interesting to me (besides the question of whether one was inspired by the other) is the decision to use traditional advertising. Some people have questioned the morality (or even legality) of a municipal agency posting religious material. That, I take no issue with. The very premise of advertising is the subjection of the public to intentionally biased information. Whether the topic is Islam or a ski resort probably shouldn't bear on an ad's right to be posted in public (though at school is another matter). I do wonder, though, whether the association of consumer products and religion through use of traditional advertising is a particularly good idea for either mission.