Countdownarcade’s Counter-Productive Ads in Regional Double Decker Buses
Buses. In London, we’re used to seeing adverts splashed all over buses so, this week, we thought we’d have a look at what’s going on in the Home Counties…
In terms of visibility, e-commerce site Countdownarcade.com has to be the winner, even though they’ve opted to advertise inside, rather than outside the buses, presumably to exploit what is, after all, a rather captive audience of passengers. You can hardly miss their ads – they’re plastered across three or four of the windows. In fact, you’d need to crouch on the floor to see past them. Great idea, huh? Bear in mind that many of the passengers on regional buses are on their way to town centres to do a bit of shopping – where better to advertise your time-saving, hassle-saving e-tail operation?
If only Countdownarcade had chosen a better slogan. Featuring a huge hand of playing cards, their ads say “Don’t gamble on the Internet”. What they mean, of course, is ‘rather than gamble with other shopping sites on the Net, come along to countdownarcade.com where we guarantee you’ll be satisfied’. But, because we thought the slogan was ambiguous (and because we’re inquisitive), we asked a few of our fellow passengers what they thought… and yes indeed most of them interpreted the slogan as a warning not to shop on the Internet at all!
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