Week 7 EOC: Exciting Ad

In this ad for the new Lion Camp at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, the creators accomplish several elements all at once. The first and most striking is the simple fact that it’s funny. It presents a very human emotion being displayed by an animal (Zebra), doing something that is almost entirely impossible, cringing in fear and desperation to get as high and far away from something as it possibly can by climbing up the back and neck of a Giraffe. Immediately we identify with emotion the animal feels, as we have all felt something similar at times. Then our eyes pan downward and we see why such a ridiculous thing might happen. The Lions have arrived. And suddenly the emotion connected to the add becomes clear. We are both afraid, and excited at the possibility all at once. Bringing us directly into the ad’s design principles:

Composition: This particular ad holds a tall frame, likely useable inside a magazine spread. It makes good use of space with a large amount reserved for an understandable and amusing image, with a small amount of text at the bottom. It is easy to understand and uses its space to communicate both fear and excitement, and the subtle need to experience both.

Negative shapes: The reason this image stands out and is easily recognizable is the simplicity and strong use of negative space around the animals. The animals are beautifully framed on either side by light blue sky allowing the viewer to see the animals and the emotion they evoke.

Visual Hierarchy: The ad begins by leading our eye top and center to the very clear image of the Giraffe supporting the weight of the very frightened Zebra. Our eyes take a moment to register what we are seeing, deciphering the emotion, and then the image leads us down into the header (explaining the emotion we are seeing), the content text, and then where we can go to experience this excitement/emotion for ourselves, the San Diego Zoo.

Illusion: The illusion of this ad helps to promote the emotional effect of the ad, something that we know and immediately recognize to be impossible, but funny and understandable all at once. The Photoshop artist did a beautiful job making the illusion believable, which in turn opens the door for us to look to the bottom of the ad and see exactly why the Zebra (and ourselves) feel the knee-jerk fear and excitement at the coming of the lions.