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Previous: Reset button on any lengthy form | Main | Next: Newspaper's automated phone service
December 9, 2003 03:50 AM
Broken: Billboard wording (funny)
Seen on Defective Yeti: This billboard is just wrong. I'm all for well-meaning public-service announcements... but will this really make the youngsters aspire to become engineers?
Um, what? It's broken because it's too blunt. It's broken because telling a teenage boy that being an engineer is better than sex is the wrong way to sell your stance. It's broken because they tried to funk it up visually. Take a step back and look at the humor.
no, its broken. ok, it may be playing the message across just fine, but it won't have an effect. a teenager will not have sex because of this, and it almost certainly won't make them want them to become an engineer. where's the motivation? a succesful advertisement/public announcement needs to bring out the strong points of following its advise. this does not do that at all. in fact, at the very least it does the exact opposite. ask any teenager if they don't want to have sex. they are going to say no. sorry, but these hormone-pumped kids like sex. maybe a billboard about the cons of sex as a teen, but that's a different subject interely.
Well, I read the sign and I don't know what it supposed to be telling me. I'd say that the it isn't getting its message across, whatever that message happens to be.
It is broken in the way that its creator is accidentally made it outrageously funny, especially to this computer engineer.
I can attest, sitting in labs for hours feverishly working on electrical wiring or a computer program certainly does not aid in improving your social charisma, nor your physical appearance (unlike those artsies, who, with no real work to do, are already hitting on the opposite sex at the bar at 5pm).
So, in a way, the sign is NOT broken - but perhaps its creator didn't realize he/she was stating an depressing, all-too-obvious, fact.
sorry, the first time i saw this i thought it was a joke about engineers. it definately does not convey a message of abstinence, and for that i applaud it.
PS i write better code now that i get laid.
At first it appeared to me that it was a billboard from a third world country encouraging younsters to get an engineering degree, and the abstinence message piggy backed onto the main message. After remembering that Lamar is an American outdoor advertising company and I changed the context, then it just looked stupid, perhaps just another anti-geek message.
im an engineering major and i think that this shit is true for alot of engineers... not me cuz id kill myself... everyone in my major here thinks this shit is hilarious... but yes mad hours are spent in the lab doing homework labs, and unfortunately writing code... and if i wasnt already going to school for it this shit would deter me from trying to be an engineer ! ! ! those bastards...
Don't have sex, so you will become an engineer; and you won't have sex because you are an engineer, and not a (rock star, athlete, movie star, etc...)
Also I don't agree with purely abstinence-based sex education. That's not what I learned when I was a teenager.
If they don't want people to have sex they shouldn't mention it at all or they should point out the bad so people don't want to do it. Example: Every day hundreds of thousands of teenagers die from STD's. I Like the Truth comercials about smoking. I think they work because i don't smoke and i am more repulsed by the thought since i've seen them. In short i think it is broken and if anything, it only reminds me of my natural urges to have sex.
Everyone that already agrees with the message has stated here that they understand the sign. That is ineffective at making new contacts in the desired demographic. Hence - BROKEN. I agree that abstinence is the key to success for teenagers, but this sign is just reaffirming the willing. In otherwords, preaching to the choir. They could show a teenage couple with the girl pregnant. The girl could say, I wanted to be an Engineer, I wanted to go to college. Looks like I f#@$ed up.
This ad is about AIDS. It has little to do with Middle American abstinence, and everything to do with the tragic development of the disease in Southern Africa.
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Reset button on any lengthy form | Main | Next: Newspaper's automated phone service
It may be funny to you, and furthermore it may seem nonsensical if you disagree with abstinence-based sex education, but it's not necessarily broken.
Clearly the creators of this sign are trying to create a powerful association: have sex while you are young and you may jeapordize (or at least derail) your future career. The content and intentions of the message are clear; hence, the sign is NOT broken. It may however, not be particularly effective among the target audience. This is just a reminder of how advertising is different than interface design.
Posted by: Robby Slaughter at December 9, 2003 12:53 PM