Newspaper Ads are Way More Interesting (and less annoying) than Digital Ads

Advertisements surrounds us everywhere. As digital media usage grew, companies experienced a shift in where and how they place their advertisements. Now, advertisements are often seen in the forms of pop ups in websites or posts on Instagram. This shift in advertising is practical and reasonable to reach a larger number of consumers. However, I came across some newspaper advertisements which made me reconsider the value and possibility of traditional paper advertisements.

1.    KINCHO, Origami advertisement (2017)

Figure 1 KINCHO, Origami Ad, 2011

           Figure 1 is an advertisement from KINCHO, a health medicine company in Japan. This particular advertisement is promoting an insecticide spray you can see at the very bottom. The lines you see above are folding lines and the advertisement is designed as an origami sheet. If you go to their website there is an hour-long video with instructions. You are supposed to end up with something like…..

Figure 2 KINCHO, Origami Ad, 2017

2.    Barns, Catmur & Friends, Hell Pizza Ad (2011)

Figure 3 Barnes, Catmur & Friends, Hell Pizza Ad 2011

           Figure 3 is an advertisement of a pizza retail store in New Zealand. It connected the buzzing news of Osama Bin Laden’s death with their unique name, “Hell.” This advertisement won the “NAB (Newspaper Advertising Bureau) Newspaper Advertisement of the Month” in New Zealand. We can see another example of the conjunction of newspaper articles and advertisement in the next example.

3.     Veet Ad (2009)

Figure 4 Veet Ad 2009

           Figure 4 is an advertisement from Veet, an Australian hair-removal brand which was placed right below a picture of President Obama and an article about him. While online advertisements are personalized to fit your interests and have flexible placements, permanent placement of advertisements on newspapers can bring an interesting effect by collaborating with already existing articles of public interest.

4.    Heinz, Garlic Sauce Ad (2011)

Figure 5 Heinz, Garlic Sauce Ad, 2011

           Figure 5 is an advertisement of the infamous brand, Heinz, for their “Extra Strong Garlic Sauce.” This used the personal advertisement page of the newspaper (a page magazines and digital media don't usually have) to express the “Extra Strong-ness” of their product.

5.    McDonald's Burrito Ad (2009)

Figure 6 McDonalds, Burrito Ad, 2009

           Figure 6 is an advertisement for when McDonald's introduced their “Breakfast Burrito.” The advertising works when the newspapers are rolled up for delivery. The Edmonton Sun, a daily newspaper in Canada was transformed into a McDonald’s breakfast burrito that day and won the “Best of Show award” at the Canadian Newspaper Association’s 2009 Extra Awards.

           As we see in the examples, newspapers provide a unique and playful platform for advertisements. To put it in another way, these advertisements exist on top of the characteristics and functions of newspapers. For example, the origami advertisement is effective because of the disposability of newspapers, whereas the McDonald’s burrito ad works because of the way in which newspapers are distributed.

Print media holds allows advertisements to interact with the reader and therefore, consumers. It is important to notice that although digital advertisements are more efficient in reaching a larger number of people and easier to cater towards a specific target audience, print media advertisements can engage consumers in ways digital advertisements cannot.