At first glance, this poster ad looks like it is advertising soap.
It is actually for muesli bars.
It is interesting how a few seemingly innocuous and minute factors can add up to a larger mis-communication.
- The cascading stream with the white foam in the background could say clean and fresh.
- The shape and size of the box is reminiscent of a box of five soaps.
- The tan colour is not uncommon in soap packaging - eg soap with oatmeal.
Of course, as soon as you actually pay the poster any attention, you would realise that it is for muesli bars and not soap. There is no actual communications error here.
But first impressions, at-a-glance-impressions, is important for these sorts of walk-past advertising. If I was not thinking about soap, I would not have realised this was for muesli bars… confusing isn’t it?
The strange thing is, even though I know this is for muesli bars, every time I walk past one of these I still think “soap”.
