Citibank ~ a company that can get women to the beach rain or shine
Playing along with the financial security theme of Wal-Mart, Citibank had two relevant ads in the October 2007 House and Garden magazine. They are both targeted at women, and both use the beach in two different weather settings.
First off, you have the back cover of the magazine, which has a mom and her child sitting on the warm beach:
Then you have a woman who looks a little cold in the stormy beachy November-like weather here:
Women and Co. is apparently a group that was created by Citigroup North America to address women’s financial needs specifically. I’m going to assume that the stormy sea is indicative of a woman that has taken control of the rough weather that life throws at you. I think that the ad is okay, and certainly more interesting and storytelling than the top one, which is sort of about nothing. There was no need to have two beach scene ads in one magazine really.
I would have switched the two ads’ locations in the magazine, since the top one was in a prominent location on the back cover of the magazine. The bottom one is just far more visually distinguished. And in the stormy sea ad, along with on their website, they have gone to great lengths to avoid making the focus purely on the 36-year-old caucasian woman with a child.
You can see that Citigroup’s’ logo is serving as a bridge and an umbrella (similar to the Travelers logo, which Citigroup bought and later resold earlier this year to MetLife). This is also similar to the recent Hilton campaign where there is a rope or string that is meant to represent the distance from A to B being more than just a straight line; you’re supposed to also enjoy little pieces of life, like Hilton, on the way there. This image is from hilton.com and is not necessarily the best example of the creativity of the campaign, which I generally like:
The Hilton ad is less about security and more about letting loose. I will try to find some of these in my magazine stack to post soon.
- - - -
Posted on September 24, 2007
Filed Under Beaches, Business and Commerce | 2 Comments
Comments
2 Responses to “Citibank ~ a company that can get women to the beach rain or shine”
Leave a Reply
HOME
[...] ads that won’t go away. They are some moody fall beach scenes — not unlike the Women and Co. ad from an earlier post. Here’s one that has young college-entrance-exam takers everywhere [...]
[...] refuses to leave the coasts with their advertising. They must have spent some time at the Earl Cunningham exhibit at the Smithsonian to come up [...]