10 Membranes

The Times Ad Campaign

Is reminding us what advertising, journalism and design is all about. Clean, bold, timely these adverts are a strong and distinct summation of key cultural motifs and massively bolster the news brand, with that powerful and dignified masthead.

Why do I care? Firstly because adverts have been unusally annoying recently. Maybe that’s just me, but they have. I name no names. Yet. Secondly print journalism has been suffering a slight crisis of identity, authenticity and, most critically, revenue. What I like about this campaign is the pride that massive masthead shows in what this grande dame of journalism is all about. They also demonstrate a faith in the importance of current events, a faith that is often intelligent.  Niko Bellic of GTA IV and Katie Price of “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Oh Here” are not flippant choices- they are emblematic of huge, near unperceived, shifts in the contentsphere of our lives. For the alien anthrolopologist they are vital, semiotically dense images that stare back through the solid white lettering.

The further genius of the campaign was to phase, with images on a black background appearing long before an association with The Times was ever made explicit. This air of mystery made us appreciate the poetic and symbolic nature of the images- forced us to through the absence of any commentary in the commercial spaces where we are used to being served up ads with obvious meanings spelled out in bright colours and bubble lettering.

My personal favourite is that of the large hadron collider. This massive glowing ring of wire and burnished metal throbs with power and potential and strangeness. It looks extra human and monstrous; all the beauty and terror of science and the unknown wrapped in one luminous halo.

And no, I am not on the News International payroll. Personally I read The Guardian.