Dig That Sound Everybody knows that a kick-ass audio
system will blow your socks off. Anyone up for a little combustion
too?
AdWeek
By Robert Klara
April 5, 2012
As visually arresting as magazine
advertising can be, it has its limitations. One of them is that the
printed page cannot convey senses like smell, taste and sound. And
if you’re in the business of selling audio equipment, that last one
is a problem. The best way out of it is to create a visual
metaphor—something to evoke the power of hi-fi even as the page
lays silent. As the ads on these pages show, sometimes that idea
works, sometimes less so.
In 1979, Maxell hired agency Scali, McCabe,
Sloves to create an ad that would show how its UR Type 1 audio
cassette tape outlasted the competition and delivered superior
sound quality, even after 500 plays. That’s when, without quite
planning to, art director Lars Anderson made advertising history.
Anderson dropped a cool-looking guy into a Le Corbusier chair and,
with the help of fishing line, showed what looked like him being
buffeted by the tempestuous, high-compression winds from a JBL
speaker. As a metaphor, it was flawless.
“For years, advertisers have tried to take
an abstract idea and articulate it visually, and 99 percent of the
time they fail,” said Thomas Ordahl, senior director of strategy at
marketing consultancy Landor Associates. “This time, they knocked
it out of the park.” Part of the reason the ad worked so well,
Ordahl added, was its timing. Advances in speaker technology along
with the introduction of Sony’s Walkman in June 1979 were making
music listening into a more personal experience. The “Blown-Away
Guy” ad, as it became known, “evoked the emotional pleasure of
listening to music alone,” said Ordahl. “It was all about the sound
quality and the experience, and Maxell was going to blow you
away.”