I have seen a billboard for this new deodorant a couple times in the last week, while driving into downtown Chicago on I-290.
Both times I saw it I initially misread the product’s name as Putrefaction, which for some reason brought much joy to my heart.
Seen in a sidebar ad for an exciting new dog-slimming pharmaceutical which I won’t pimp here.
If I hear so much as a whimper from you I will double your load of bricks!
Today I saw this advertisement on the right sidebar of one of my SiteMeter pages.
If you guessed –
B) deep-fried animal testicles
– congratulations, you’re a winner!
I was meeting my brother for lunch the other today. He works in a skyscraper in downtown Chicago.
As I was in the elevator, I glanced at a smallish monitor on the wall. The monitor was displaying a mixture of weather, factoids and advertisements. The thing that stuck in my head was the name of the company providing this service:
I thought, “Hmm, that corporate name is sort of cute, in a completely obnoxious way.”
They’re playing on the words “captive” and “captivate”.
First the definitions of each word, per the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
________________________________
captive
Pronunciation:
\ˈkap-tiv\
Function:
adjective
Etymology:
Middle English, from Latin captivus, from captus, past participle of capere
Date:
14th century
1 a: taken and held as or as if a prisoner of war b (1): kept within bounds : confined (2): of or relating to captive animals
2: held under control of another but having the appearance of independence; especially : owned or controlled by another concern and operated for its needs rather than for an open market
3: being such involuntarily because of a situation that makes free choice or departure difficult
captivate
Pronunciation:
\ˈkap-tə-ˌvāt\
Function:
transitive verb
Date:
circa 1555
1 archaic : seize, capture
2: to influence and dominate by some special charm, art, or trait and with an irresistible appeal
________________________________
The name of this corporate entity is essentially a wink at the fact that its advertisements are directed at people who cannot go anywhere, who are essentially trapped, imprisoned, immobilized in a small box with nothing to look at. Or maybe the content on their monitors really does have “irresistible appeal”. But I’m not buying that.
From their website:
Day in and day out, Captivate gives you a one-of-a-kind opportunity to repeatedly reach your target audience during the business day. Our national network delivers more than 54.5 million monthly impressions to more than 2.5 million educated, motivated professionals in North America’s largest markets.
Because we deliver your message to a captive audience in a focused, distraction-free environment, we have an average ad recall rate that exceeds that of most other media. We’re memorable and measurable – and consistently generate strong, tangible results on behalf of our clients. When it comes to keeping your story top of mind with your target customer, Captivate takes your marketing efforts to new heights.
What’s that? You say *you* want the Captivate Network experience? *You* want to be bombarded with some impressions?
Here you go!
Please add a comment to this post, indicating
1. Do you know how to complete the number below?
2. Your location (State, if in the US, or Country)
588-2300
P.S. If you give away the completed phrase in a comment, I’ll delete it, and then I’ll find you and shoot you in the ankle with a squirt gun filled with cat urine.
UPDATE:
I decided not to delete the comments of the people who revealed the end of this phrase, but I’m still going ahead with the spraying of their ankles with cat urine.
I got up very early on Friday morning, much earlier than I normally do. I decided to go into work.
After I left the train station, and walked to my place of work, I stopped as cars were exiting the Eisenhower expressway to downtown.
In this case, they weren’t your average cars, but were three trucks in a line, and looked very similar to this:
If it’s not clear to you, the above picture is of a truck that is *not* pulling a container that can haul stuff. All that truck is pulling is a two-sided billboard.
I was witness to what I assume was the beginning of a long day of driving for these trucks. Their drivers were given the task of weaving through busy sections of Chicago to advertise — that’s it, just advertisement, for it’s own sake.
I’ve always said increased traffic congestion, environmental pollution and dependence on foreign oil were signs of a great ad.
Post (with an accompanying ad) from BoingBoing.net, seen in my current RSS feed aggregator, Google Reader.
Actual screenshot taken directly from the Wendys.com site.
