Pepsodent's "Don't let food stay too long"

I came across this interesting print ad design on a website for creative designers and think it is too perfect to be missed. 

The purpose of Pepsodent in this advertisement is to raise people awareness of brushing their teeth soon after eating, and using Pepsodent Torsion to do that, of course. The reason I chose this ad is because it is both creative and not so hard to understand.

At first, it is quite easy to see that the ad is about tooth-related products. With the image of a toothbrush and the slogan “Don’t let food stay too long” in the bottom, product is clearly featured while still not disrupts the interesting feeling that the ad brings to the viewers.  The brand name, even though placed a little bit low in the bottom, is still able to gain attention because the design of this ad somehow makes people want to look twice and curious of which brand is behind it.

The message is pretty clear: “Don’t let food stay too long”, illustrated by the image of an animal fossil lying inside the tooth, which is quite gross. Indeed, this is actually the feeling that the brand is looking to convey to their customers. They want to create something not pleasant to look at or think of in order to raise the awareness of teeth cleansing habit. The background color, the dirty shade of the tooth and the way the designer made the fossil looks like it broke out and damaged the tooth contribute greatly to this message’s effectiveness. By creating images with strong emotional attachment, this advertisement can be easily memorized by by-passing people on the street or in the subway.  

Let’s look deeper into how the design of this ad make it impressive to the viewers:

Contrast: As to R. William, “The idea behind contrast is to avoid elements on the page that are merely similar. If the elements (type, color, size, line thickness, shape, space, etc.) are not the same, then make them very different” and it is “what makes a reader look at the page in the first place”. With the use of only one main art visual in a blank space, thin text in the bottom and colors with strong contrast, the ad can catch the eyes of the viewers easily.

Repetition: means “repeat visual elements of the design throughout the piece. You can repeat colors, shapes, textures, spatial relation­ ships, line thicknesses, fonts, sizes, graphic concepts, etc.” In this case, the colors are what has been continuously repeated in different elements of the ad. This color family brings up a feeling of dirty and disgusted to the main art visual, and at the same time, successfully enhances the fresh clean blue of the brand.

Alignment: “Every element should have some visual connection with another element on the page”. By putting the product and brand name at the middle bottom, not right bottom as many other brands who use the same type of design idea usually do, the designer somehow successfully makes the whole picture look more unity and organized.

Proximity: “Items relating to each other should be grouped close together. When several items are in close proximity to each other, they become one visual unit rather than several separate units.” This can be seen by the way the ad puts together the product and the brand name as one visual unit. It helps viewers quickly catch the name of the brand behind the ad and the whole message that they want to convey at the same time without having to look all over the whole picture.  

This ad does not use the “rule of thirds” for its main visual but with the blank and minimal background design style, we can put the visual unit at the center and still be able to make the whole picture look harmonious and catchy at the same time.