Each and every single day we are bombarded by an almost uncountable number of advertisements be that on TV, posters, magazines, billboards or wherever, ads are everywhere. But while we pay little attention to many of them (though this doesn’t negate their actual power or effect) there are a few that really jump out at you.

I’ve always had an interest in the art of advertising, ever since I was a young boy when I would draw ads myself, or design record covers for an imaginary band called ‘The Mad Hatters’. The art of truly engaging advertising has never been lost on me. I like things that stop you and make you think, and that is what the best kind of advertising does in my opinion.

The picture above appeared in Japan and had a tag-line “Africa could use fewer guns and more food.”

Appealing to our humor and connecting with everyones ability to forget things, the two ads above stopped me cause I was puzzled as to what a business would have such an odd name. The penny dropped when I read the strap-line.

“A book will never let you down” explains a Booksplus ad. The right hand page of the pictured book is displaying the words “This page cannot be displayed” in the style of a page that anyone who has used the internet will have seen enough to relate with how frustrating that can be. The idea point is illustrated very well. Come buy a book made of paper that doesn’t require power and can be taken anywhere. Clever stuff.

The two ads above are really striking and beautifully subtle in communicating a powerful message. state on the strap-line “It’s not always obvious who needs our help.”

Above: I’m not entirely sure where these signs were placed, but they are subtle in making the point that it’s not convenient to have a disability. I once knew a disabled person who would carry large stickers that he would paste onto the window of anyone who was not disabled and parked in a disabled parking space. The sticker, which would be very time consuming to remove, read “You like my parking space, but would you like my disability?”

Below: Imaginative advertising from the BBC in America. The poster wraps around a wall and shows a picture that see from one side might communicate one impression, but a completely different impression from another, it’s only when you step back from the corner and see the complete picture do you see the entire scene without distortion. “See both sides of the story” reads the text across the picture, and the point should be obvious.