Bank of America's Latest Ad Nuisance

I've got Morcheeba playing in the background, my 'leaning tower of Piza' coffee mug in one hand and the March 19th issue of BusinessWeek in the other. The March 26th weekly arrived today as well so I'm a little behind on my reading. I settle down into my comfy oversized couch-chair, pull up the ottoman, take a sip of my tasty brew and set it down onto the end table next to me. I open up my BW and flip to page 48 for the front cover story.

Flip, flip, flip…page 21. Hmmm. Let’s try this again. Flip, flip, flip…page 21. A weighted section of the magazine has annoyingly affected the flow of my flip. It’s Bank of America’s new ad spot promoting their new “Windows of Opportunity” tagline; a two-page ad on heavy-weight paper three times that of your standard magazine subscription postcard.

It was an annoyance that just wouldn’t go away. Every flip went to page 21. I couldn’t even find the front end of the magazine to get to the table of contents; all the pages seemed to just cling together easily overpowered by BofA's heavy-weight ad. Beyond frustrating. After 40 minutes of rediculous back and forth page-flipping I finally ripped it out smiling and cursing all the while. I feel this two-page nuisance has stolen my relaxing morning.

Blasted!

I take a closer look at the source of my ills. At first glance, the first ad page looks nice. You feel like you're walking toward the entrance of one of those plush corporate buildings in New York's business district near 3rd and Park. But immediately my eyes are drawn to the large cutout in the center of the page. It's Bank of America's flagscape logo which has been stenciled-out so you can see the images from the ad-page behind it. It's a pciture of an old man and...a clerk? Maybe his son, maybe a worker, maybe a total stranger. Who knows. The flagship cutout is intended to represent the "window of opportunity". The building on the front page reflects the disposition of an opportunity realized (this didn't hit me until much later); the people in the images behind it represent the opportunity seekers. Hmm.

A good concept surely but in print form – ack. First of all, portions of the flagship cutout are blocking the faces of the people behind it (minor) but more importantly, all the colors of the image blend in with the colors on the front page. How often do you look into or out of a window and everything looks the same? And since the window is supposed to reflect two different points in time - i.e., here's where we were - here's where we are now - the colors used for both points in time should contrast each other enough to convey that sense of growth through the years. Instead, my eyes just wash over all the brown and I have no desire to flip to the second page to glimpse the story of the opportunity seekers – which is also where the Bank of America tagline appears. But, since I know I’m going to write about this annoying little incident I feel I must. I flip, I look and two seconds later... I throw the pages down and eagerly return to my BW magazine.

My review...a good concept but I think the print version misses the mark entirely on delivery. On the right track but poorly captured. I didn't feel the opportunity nor the spirit of circumstance that the idea of an opportunity realized should convey. The "window of opportunity" and the image of the people behind it just melded together into one bland concept. Of course.. I'd be remiss if I didn't at least admit the possibility that my discontent with the ad's involvement in tainting my sunday morning routine has made my opinions biased. But I'll also note that I didn't even realize the image on the front page represented the "now" of the image on the second page until after I had looked over the ad several times to write this post. I didn't make the connection - probably because there wasn't enough contrast between the two images..or maybe I'm just s-l-o-w.

Whatever. It'll quickly get the kibosh if it shows up in my March 26th BW weekly.