When there's more than meets the eye...

I am not sure how many of us gloss over the ads we see in print. Pity. There's more to some of them than meets the eye.

This one below seems like a very good idea, projecting the CIMB banking group as a premier regional banker to all 10 ASEAN countries:

A soccer team should ordinarily have 11 players, but we can allow for some laxity in this case, since ASEAN has 10 members. So, the ad agency had a great concept, allowing CIMB to associate itself as a solid supporter of a grouping that is "Going from strength to strength as one".

But CIMB was let down by the sloppy ad.

Still, I bet very few people spotted the glaring -- and I would say unforgiveable -- error. You, dear reader, will have to be curious to spot it. Start by trying to identify each flag. If you are unfamiliar with some of the flags, just Google "flags of ASEAN countries". I'll help you; just click on this link:

http://www.flags.net/ASEA.htm

You will find that one of the flags is not that of an ASEAN country! You should also try to identify that "rogue" flag. It is from Asia but NOT from a Southeast Asian country.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

There are also what I call "over the top" ads, like this one:

Or this one:

This one below is even more hyperbolic, and you are urged -- if need be -- to crawl over broken glass to get to the event!...

One pet peeve of mine is this silly attempt by the admen to brainwash Singaporeans into believing that we have four seasons. No, we don't! We are going through a very hot spell now but we DO NOT have summer, contrary to what's suggested here...

-----------------------------------------------------------

But, thankfully, there are the creative (often cheeky), really good ads and posters. These often cleverly play on words or ideas...

 

Then there are the inadvertently funny (if also grim) ones, like these two, when "strung together"... 

And, to wrap up, the preachy "this is good for you even if..." pitch: