... Mag Ads mixed with Mobile

Lowe in Uruguay have created a pretty cool magazine ad that appears censored upon first glance.


The image shows a blonde fittie who’s boobs and bits have been covered over with white, empty boxes.


An explanation next to the ad instructs the reader to text ‘AXE’ to a certain phone number after 9pm to complete the picture. Upon doing so, the reader receives a picture message response that shows the missing parts of the picture. They can hold this over their mag to complete the pic.


Pretty clever way to involve your audience! Also think that having a censored ad with a ‘watershed’ of 9pm is pretty funny. But if this ad was featured in mags like Zoo and Nuts (well, the Uruguay equivelant) then would anyone bother texting? They would surely be getting their fill of scantily clad ladies already? Unsure if texting means that the reader is entered into some marketing database, or if it will cost them an arm and a leg to do so, but it’s still quite a cool way to get the readers’ attention, especially if they usually just flick straight past the ads.


There are far more interesting ways to involve mobile with the ‘real world’ though, especially with these mobile barcodes we’ve seen kicking about for a while, and, of course, the iphone and its many apps. But for a bit of frivolous fun without much work required by the developers/ad agency, I think this ad does the trick.