Hasta La Ideas

Travelling around the London Underground yesterday, we came across this surprising campaign for online electronics retailer dixons.co.uk…

Eschewing Dixons’ usually bland ad approach, the posters (which were created by M&C Saatchi in London) cheekily recognise the brand’s position in the electronics market, which is pretty much at the bottom. The ads acknowledge a habit that many of us may recognise with some guilt – that we will get advice about expensive goods at a more upmarket store, but then nip online to make the actual purchase, where it is cheaper.

Using the familiar fonts from a number of popular London retailers – Selfridges and John Lewis are shown here, and other iterations include Harrods – the ads open with a description of the benefits of shopping in these stores, before then reverting to the Dixons font with the line “then go to dixons.co.uk to buy it”. The self-harm/awareness continues with the ads’ tagline, which is “the last place you want to go”.

We’re used to hearing about how brands are going to be more transparent in the modern age, but it makes a pleasant change to actually see such self-knowledge put at the centre of an ad campaign, and it will be interesting to see how successful it proves to be.