6.08.2009

Tysons Corner Center: "War Chic"

Saw this on the Metro the other day:


I gazed over and saw it, and thought "That's a weird usage of the Vietnam War Memorial." I looked closer, and noticed that apparently Dockers and CakeLove perished in the war waged decades ago.

I have to wonder... when this ad was being designed, did they think that evoking the Vietnam wall would be a good strategy, or were they so blind that they didn't notice? Or have they just farmed out everything to freelancers who sit at Tryst and pretend to know Photoshop?

22 comments:

  1. Funny, I was sitting in a coffee shop doing my blogging and freelance writing the other day and this bespectacled man approaches me.

    NO, I do NOT know anything about Visio, dude. Fuck off!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's about on par w/ sexualizing minors, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 08, 2009

    What is the organization and what is the agency that produced this ad, I wonder....

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 08, 2009

    sad. and cold.
    i'm deeply disgusted by that ad.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 09, 2009

    This is in Tysons? We should start putting floors on the ground by it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 09, 2009

    Some points here:
    1) The Vietnam Veterans Memorial contains only names, no names of cities.
    2) There were no casualties of the Vietnam War with the names Dockers or CakeLove.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Marketing is the dry hump of business school.

    If you are too stupid to be something useful - like a scientist or engineer - you go to business school. If you are too stupid to take accounting, finance, or somethign relating to math in business school you study management.

    If you are too stupid for management, you go to marketing.

    If you are too stupid for marketing, you probably did not graduate from high school anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJune 09, 2009

    I didn't know there was a website where total idiots can come together and share their commonly ignorant thoughts. Congratulations you guys did it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Anonymous. Welcome to the Internet, you may want to start your journey with sites such as www.google.com and www.cnn.com.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJune 09, 2009

    Except... the actual memorial uses a sans serif font, whilst the ad uses a serif font (I notice the strongest difference in the letter W), and in the memorial, the names are separated by bullets (that apparent cross is actually a plus sign, to indicate "and" in a brand name), while no such luck in the ad. If it is meant to be an allusion to the memorial, it's a lousy one.

    But, why let facts get in the way of a good outrage?

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousJune 10, 2009

    are you actually saying "whilst"? that's the saddest attempt at sounding intelligent

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousJune 10, 2009

    Actually the Vietnam Memorial has symbols for MIA or POW, not a dot/bullet for every name.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dave, good catch. Thanks for spotting this, and for posting.

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousJune 10, 2009

    I think the most of you need to find a life esepcially the dude that made this god forsaken blog. I hope that he does not live in d.c and if he does just freaking move already. Stop complaining about something you obviously or probably is not doing a thing to change the way it is except complain like a 2 yr old.

    The ad is not offensive. It does not play off the memorial. Any one who sees that is just finding another reason to sound like a bi*ch. There have been plenty ads with the same format and never been compared to the memorial. GET A LIFE!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I dunno, it seems that writing about it on this blog did a whole lot more than not writing about it. But, you know, that's just me.

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousJune 10, 2009

    I love when people like Anonymous stumble upon this blog and comment something they think no one else has commented since March of 2003.

    Meanwhile, who says "Get a Life" anymore?

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousJune 11, 2009

    I think this discussion is interesting. I'd like to point out that as recently former DC native, I certainly have seen many, many ads for Tyson's corner. It is completely clear to me that this ad is simply a modified version of their more recent ads where store names were similarly imposed over the entire ad, including the model's body.

    Certainly, no ad company would actually do a photo-shoot in front of the Vietnam War Memorial and I think it's hyper-critical to assume the same.

    I also think its interesting that at least one person thinks that the only two useful careers are those of scientist and engineer... that, is something that I hate about DC, namely the pompous attitude. So much for all the social and healthcare workers out there that keep people alive in a very real sense of the word.

    Finally, this little stir up has done nothing but create EXTRA advertising for Tyson's, so for people who hate advertising so much, here's a pat on the back for helping out the bad guy.

    ReplyDelete
  18. If you look just to the right the models ear you can see "TRUE RELIGION BRAND JEANS". http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JK1WmVzbCkA/Si1PE4mcUAI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/YflIxiu4VIg/s1600-h/tysonsmemorial.jpg
    The J in JEANS is odd because the uppercase J dips lower than all other letters. Which is what the Vietnam Veterans Memorial font does as well.
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Names_of_Vietnam_Veterans.jpg

    I guess we need to call the Internet police and report a blogger making an observation and expressing an opinion. Can you imagine?

    It's interesting that their ad came out during the Memorial Day Weekend. But of course lots of ads come out then, so it HAS to be a coincidence... Doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks for pulling this together and sharing!


    Term papers

    ReplyDelete
  20. Your article is well written. Cant wait to read more. Thanks for sharing here..

    Term papers

    ReplyDelete
  21. How about you all spend your time doing something more useful instead of complaining about random advertisements.

    While you were complaining, I was busy making money as a successful marketer.

    ReplyDelete