But Enough About Me

Let's talk about you.

Ad for HTC mobile phone, bus stop, San Francisco, Nov. 14.

        Yahoo ad, MUNI bus, same bus stop, same day.

Advertising directed at "you" is nothing new, of course.

"The most famous poster in the world," originally published
as the cover of Leslie's Weekly, July 16, 1916.

1953 poster by the Ad Council
for the U.S. Forest Service.*

The difference? Back then, "you" were being asked to shoulder responsibility. Now it's all about looking in the mirror.

I blame Time, of course:

Hat tip to Jordie Welles for suggesting this theme.

___

* "Only you can prevent forest fires!", created in 1947, was the longest-running campaign in Ad Council history. In 2001 "forest fires" was changed to "wildfires."

Comments

[MylesNye]

I still put "Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2006" on my resume.

[Jordie]

As my former employer used to say "Enough about me. What about you? What do you think about me?"

Thank you Nancy for the elegant simplicity. The case could not have been made any clearer. This treatment should be used as an example of the powerful force of an idea stripped to its core.

Jordie

[Duchesse]

So often I think of the Dalia Lama saying, "I am nothing, My enemy is nothing."

[John Russell]

Of course, 'the most famous poster in the world' ('the world' being 'the USA') was a copy of the UK original, "Your Country Needs You", first published in 1914. In my -- probably biased -- opinion the original is more effective because, a) it features the real man in charge (as opposed to a fictional character), b) the position of the hand makes it much more difficult to ignore, and c) the copy is shorter and is more direct.

It can be seen at
http://www.ww2poster.co.uk/posters/imagebank/kitchener.htm