Who wears shorts, short!!!!!

While I was walking through the train terminal in Rome, I noticed a very large ad placed behind a glass window in one of the center stores. It was an ad for a company that sold men’s bathing suits. At first glance, it looks just like a regular ad for men’s bathing suits. The typical ad where you would see a couple of very attractive, well fit men running, posing or playing on the sand and in the water, but this one was quiet different. The ad actually is mimicking one of the most important days in World War 2 history, D Day, which is the invasion of Normandy Beach.

             There is a famous picture of this invasion that was taken on one of the military boats, which transferred the soldiers to the beach, and is showing the soldiers running from the boat onto the beach.

            In the ad, there are two guys wearing swimsuits with plastic, colored toy guns and walkie-talkies, which look like the ones used in World War 2. They are screaming to other men that are also wearing swimsuits, holding toy guns and those men are running onto the beach. It’s a beautiful sunny beach day in this ad and there are water balloons hitting the boat as if someone on the beach is attacking them. On the top of the ad, is the name of the swimsuit company and their slogan is “ Making beach history since 1959”.

            I love this ad because it’s very creative but this ad would definitely not work in the U.S. It would be considered offensive and disrespectful to the men that have sacrificed their life on that day and in the War. The ad looks like if these men are playing a war game on the beach and its fun and colorful; everything this battle wasn’t.            

            I think it works in Europe because it was American soldiers that invaded the beach so if Europeans saw the ad, they wouldn’t think of it as being offensive or disrespectful

            It would cause controversy, which would bring attention to the company. I thought it was very creative and the ad is very affective. It definitely is targeting young fit men because of the men in the ad. I think this is a great ad. It caught my attention.