Lousy-looking ads for the lousy-looking movie Bruno:
photo by Flickr user jetsetcd
It’s one thing when street ads actually pretend to be street art. You may feel like a sucker when the latest viral meme turns out to be a soda pop commercial, but at least the ad agency gets credit for a “gotcha.”
On the other hand, these Bruno posters don’t even try to fool you. They just ape an aesthetic, badly. The movie is meant to be an edgy satire, but this ad campaign is less subversive than the ads for a Disney movie about a talking chihuahua.
Ah, well. We snooze, they lose!
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those guys have a good sense for satire- don’t you think it would be possible that they’re aware of using street art for viral marketing at this point, and are basically making fun of it? i’m not saying it’s that funny but i wouldn’t assume they actually think they’re doing viral marketing straight up..
Lou, that’s an interesting take, but it seems like a generous read. I suppose it’s possible this is some kind of meta-parody…
But I don’t think this is an attempt at viral marketing at all (“straight up,” meta, or otherwise). It seems more likely that it’s just another badly-designed movie poster: not even trying.
It’s a classic (albeit lame) strategy… the work is insufficient on it’s own so put quotes around it and call it a parody. Irony makes everything better, right?
It’s called The Meta-Defense.
But I think in this case it really is just bad design.