VIEW: Comparing Apples to Apples
In the spirit of Seth Stevenson's Ad Report Card on Slate, I thought I'd do a little advertising critique of my own. While looking through my local paper a few days ago, I found these two ads — conveniently placed side-by-side in an advertising section.


I initially assessed the two ads strictly as the average newspaper reader (I swear). The ads are selling the same service. I determined that if I were to choose between the two schools based solely on these ads, I would pick the one on the right. You can probably guess the reason...

Here's where I switch to graphic-designer-as-newspaper-reader. The advertiser on the right is portraying a more professional (read: reputable) image than the advertiser on the left. The ad on the right conveys a good amount of information to the reader, while maintaining a clean look with simplistic fonts in varying sizes to guide the eye around the ad. The use of a single, strong image creates impact in a small space.

The photos and fonts in the ad on the left are a bit too crowded, leaving no room to direct the viewer around the ad. While the company logo is one of the most important pieces to the puzzle, some valuable real estate could have been saved by reducing its size in this case—providing more room to explain why their school is the choice for you, for example.

Here's a test for you to try at home:
Cut out ads of your organization's competitors.
Place them along with your own advertisement in a mock magazine/newspaper layout.
Does your ad stand out above the rest?
If not, contact us for a consultation!

*Note: Studio 22 did not create either ad featured in this post.