When advertising goes so right

Spontaneous ad recall in print is hard. There must be just a handful of campaigns that stay in your mind.

I am a massive fan of print, good print that is. One of the reasons I like it is that, like radio, it’s hard to make truly memorable print, meaning the really good ones are borderline genius (see CDP’s 'Hamlet' radio campaign)

The brand that stands head and shoulders above the rest for me is the long running Economist magazine campaign. It ticks every box for how to get print advertising totally right.

1.It stems from one single minded proposition from which they never deviate –I reckon it would be something like “Economist readers just get it”.
2.It’s tone of voice is crystal clear and bang on every time
3.It knows it’s audience and doesn’t try to appeal to anyone else
4.It gets that fundamental rule of print – keep that copy light
5.The art direction is clean, striking and simple using the same colour palette and typeface

The result is advertising that is genuinely memorable, that doesn’t just ‘rent a space in your head’, (as Sir John Hegarty used to say about good advertising), but moves in, buys a cat and throws a housewarming party.

Any print campaigns stick in your mind?

Economist image: AMV BBDO