I've never had the opportunity to have a go but I do see a lot of adverts and I don't always see the intended meaning first. This happened twice today in the same tube station.
First off was this advert. The bit my attention was drawn to was the bold writing. It reads:
When your little boy draws a plane on the wall, do you
a) reach for the paint roller or
b) grab another crayon and draw a rocket?
My first thought was that it was one of those adverts about domestic violence. It was only after I noticed it was an IKEA ad that I realised paint rollers could also be used for painting.
I'd be interested to know if anyone else made the same mistake I did. I figure I was fooled by a few assumptions.
For starters in order to paint over the drawing you're also going to need some paint. There's no use in reaching for the paint roller if you haven't retrieved the paint and spent hours trying to get the lid off.
Who keeps paint rollers in 'reaching' distance anyway?
I'd think that IKEA's aim would be to appeal to as many people as possible with this ad. I'd reckon if they'd said 'paint brush' then they'd be reaching a wider audience. My guess is more people will have a paintbrush handy than a paint roller - I still don't think it'll be in reaching distance.
The thing is, you can't inflict as much damage with a paint brush. See where I'm coming from? Maybe it's targeting home lovers while trying to quietly hint that violence isn't the only way.
If IKEA are reading this, here are some suggestions that would be less confusing for me:
do you
...a) reach for the paint?...
...a) reach for the paint brush?...
...a) paint over it?...
or, if you are actually going for the interior design/domestic violence thing
do you
... a) reach for the blow torch?
... a) give him the belt then call the decorator?
... a) criticise his drawing skills and paint over it (remember, verbal abuse can be just as harmful as a blow to the kidney!)
J
