Three rather hilarious spots "Bust You Out", "Pappy is Dead" and "Swapped at Birth" were made showing the main characters reading serious letters that have been written in an inappropriate font.
"Bust you Out" by TBWA South Africa for Uni-ball
(please excuse the anti-rascist rant after the clip- Youtube is making the plain ad hard to upload as it has been pulled)
The first video "Bust You Out" opens with a muscled black man in a prison cell reading a letter explaining that his 'homie' is going to bust him out of jail. His homie explains: "We got a hood snitch up in the pen. We gon' cut you loose like a noose" and in the words of the commercial, "I aint spittin yo". The joke is in the narration which is voiced by an upper-crust English accent who sounds like he may have stepped right off the set of Downton Abbey and onto the wrong sound set. This is because the letter was written in the Edwardian script and not handwritten with a Uni-ball pen.
This particular ad has sparked a lot of controversy because it supposedly "mocks black African-American men in prison" by playing up racial linguistic stereotypes. I think this is rubbish because Uni-ball is not saying that every black man is a gangster with a loose grasp of the English language. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason and we should be free to illustrate them as long as we are not saying that specific people or a entire race can be boiled down to one single stereotype. Controversy aside, I love these ads.
Because Google and Blogger are not playing the game, I will have to post a link to the next two ads.
"Swapped at Birth" shows a little girl reading an earth shattering letter from her 'parents' telling her that she was swapped at birth and that her real parents are on the way to fetch her. It would be a gloomy spot if the it wasn't voiced in an over the top musical theme. The font used was Broadway-an entirely inappropriate font to use when telling your former daughter that she is going to spend her life with pig farmers. The shock on her face is palpable and I got the giggles at the end when the her dad sang: "p.s I hope you like pigs!"
"Pappy is Dead" is based on the exact same concept except the main character is a soldier during a rather violent war. He has just received a letter which he reads while missiles blast in the background. His letter informs him that his grandfather has passed but the twat that wrote the letter obviously didn't take into consideration that Comic Sans reads in a voice of a pervy children's show host like Barney or Pee-wee from Pee-wees playhouse- probably the worst way you ever want that news to be delivered.
The mood in all the above ads is rather pensive and sombre which is brought across by both the art and stage direction- this is all part of the humour. Humour is a delicate balance of implausible and plausible. The letters and situations and the fact that people use inappropriate type-faces are plausible (-ish ,the pig farmer parents less so). The implausibility factor comes in with the fact that the letter writers actually sound like that or intended for the letter to be written in that voice. As a viewer you are torn between the drama of the words and the comedy of how they are read.
The insight rings true, nothing beats a handwritten letter. It shows the recipient that you have taken time and effort and your message will not be distorted by any design-illiterate decisions you may make. I am a bit miffed that this campaign was pulled as it's a fresh and original way to sell pens. Nobody chooses to watch ads, they choose to watch things that interest or amuse them and this campaign ticked both boxes for me.
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| A game to play next time you see something inappropriately typed in Comic Sans |
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