Annoying Ads - Stella Artois

I photographed this ad at one of the Boston Red line stations in early December.

Stella Artois is a decent Belgian lager. My complaint, the thing I find annoying about the ad, is that it's so boring and mundane when compared to some of the European ads below. American advertising is largely monotonous and dull. The same tired old themes are recycled again and again with little variation or creatively. Advertisers are frustrated by technology that lets people bypass advertisements, yet put their efforts into lawsuits against "Commercial skip" technology instead of just making ads people would find entertaining.




It's as if they dumbed down their ads for the United States of America. Oh, wait, Bud Light is the top selling beer in the country. Most Americans wouldn't know a good beer if we drowned in it.



Yes, you can argue that I'm comparing video advertisements to a small billboard, but the fact remains that the billboard lacks any creativity beyond the page design. Yes, the ad is executed well. The text is well placed and readable, the image of the product is attractive, but it's no different than any other similar beer advertisement. The bottom line is, Stella Artois can do better.