Personally, I wouldn't connect your client's product to Hitler. There are far better historical figures to associate with.

ttfn!
3dogmama

and not because I'm Jewish and I find it totally offensive, but why use a negative figure such as Hitler? Not many people will get the reference of what you said about HItler being reincarnated as a child with the same swastika marked on his hand. I think it's creepy, to be honest.

suzanne maestri-walters :: graphic designer :: www.onegirlcreative.com

the main problem was that I don't know any famous personality which has an birth mark or any mark which he like. So what mark should I make which looks logical.
that's why I used Hitler.

Think, Act, Invent.
http://captonjohn.deviantart.com

Your work says something about you and your client. That ad would cost your client business and cost you clients. I would never hire someone who thought along those lines. Using one of the most evil, violent, disgusting figures in history to try to sell something like markers is shocking and memorable - but in the very worst way. You are competing with a brilliant, positive and fun Sharpie campaign. Your ad has such overwhelming negativity that I don't ever want to buy that brand! Not to mention the fact that I would never have understood your concept in a million years had you not explained it. -G

that I could think of would be Gorbochav (sic). He has this obnoxious birth mark on his head, which he is famous for. IDK. I would just go a completely different route on this one.

suzanne maestri-walters :: graphic designer :: www.onegirlcreative.com

Historic figures don't work because they wouldn't have had that marker back then and the reincarnation concept is far too difficult to communicate. Maybe use a contemporary picture of two little kids - where the big brother wrote on the little brother's face and 20 years in the future the little brother is still mad at the big brother because the marker is still on him. -G

The entire concept (aside from the Hitler problem) is convoluted and extremely hard to follow. With out reading your brief I would have had NO idea what the hell was going on. I totally agree with Gina. You need to simplify.

To all dears, please see the idea behind ad not the personality. Before posting this ad I had knew that most people will not like hitler photo on this ad, but see it because this is the concept & nobody can avoid reality.

Think, Act, Invent.
http://captonjohn.deviantart.com

i'm not going to get into the fact that using hitler as a sales tool is a horrible idea, i think that's been covered enough really.

However, you've tried to convey the idea multiple times, and yet it STILL seems VERY far fetched. It's so far fetched it's scary, that someone using a permanent marker on themselves becomes a birth mark on their reincarnation.

Lastly, calling everyone "dear" is becoming annoying, and borders on offensive. The part i find almost comical is that you KNEW people would hate the idea of Hitler being used, so why did you use him? a negative conation is NOT what the client will want, and it won't work. Again, that has to do with what i said earlier, that the concept is far fetched.

In all honesty, start over. this just isn't working on too many levels.

oh, and please, whatever you do, don't call me dear..
____________________________________________
Architectural Technician - Multimedia Designer
www.ArchMedia.us

Don't think captonjohn is trying to offend anyone with his use of the word "Dear". I believe it's just a linguistic cultural difference. Every place has 'em.

Eh?

I agree with everyone here about steering away from the reincarnation bit. If you have to explain it then it's not working. Why not try something like the inside of King Tut's tomb, with a faded markered image saying, "Reynolds indelible markers were here 1343 B.C." Plainly state it and date it.

ttfn!
3dogmama

Captonjohn, you missed a lesson in the most fundmental of advertising directives: know your audience. Another rule is that when you use cultural references, historical figures and so on as graphic elements, you must truly understand them, especially if you intend to be controversial, or you might make ignorant mistakes that prevent people from "getting" your message. I believe that is what has happened to you with this proposed ad.

Here are a few things you would have learned if you had studied the audience for this ad layout of yours, and if you had studied Hitler in greater depth:

1. Reincarnation is not a commonly held belief in the world beyond India, especially not in the West. It was incorrect of you to assume everyone would automatically think the young person's hand belonged to a reincarnation of Hitler.

2. Hitler was left-handed. It is unlikely he would have drawn a swastika on his left hand, as depicted in your layout. For this reason, I assumed the swastika on Hitler's hand was graffiti, probably placed there by the young person, who duplicated the mark on him- or herself, perhaps as some sort of tribute.

3. An important part of Hitler's plan for his "Third Reich" was the "Hitler Youth" movement. Many people would assume the young person's hand was that of a neo-Nazi Hitler Youth rather than a reincarnated Hitler. The heroic staging of the Hitler portrait and the "sieg heil" gesture of the young person's arm further reinforce this idea, even though it is a left arm, rather than right, as was always used in making the infamous salute.

4. There is no more reviled person in Western culture today than Adolf Hitler. The cruelty suffered by people under his authority is still fresh in the minds of his surviving victims and descendants of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, among whom I include my own husband. It is one thing to unite a client's product with something negative in order to be amusing, but quite another to so antagonize your audience that people would go out of their way to avoid purchasing the product.

All of the foregoing is said in the spirit of being helpful in general. You should in no way interpret this as encouragement to take this specific ad concept any further. It is disturbing almost beyond belief. If you don't understand that, then I fear for your sanity, I really do.

Mara

I couldn't have said it better myself.

suzanne maestri-walters :: graphic designer :: www.onegirlcreative.com

We all know Hitler was a bad guy, not a positive image for a global product but what an impact baby!

Given your target market I belive the reincarnation idea could work. Brilliant idea but lose the swastika and the piece of shit attached to it. You don't need to lead that one onto the dance floor again.

After reading these all critics what I understand that

there may be Hitler is that personality which I should not used because it hurts people & at least any advertising should not hurt any body.

Second thing I'm not trying to prove my ad superior or winner. But I want to say that please pay attention to the idea. Whenever we bound ourself in a limit we bound our views & possibilities.

& please tell me if I replace hitler image with another famous positive personality then what would be your reaction.

& last please execuse me if I hurted anybody by my idea or my english.

Think, Act, Invent.
http://captonjohn.deviantart.com

Hitler wasn't the only fundamental problem with your ad. As I pointed out in my post above, it is also critical that your audience immediately assume the reincarnation factor. That is not something you can indicate simply by showing a child's hand in front of the photograph of some famous dead person. That wouldn't fly even in India, I'm afraid.

Perhaps if you showed a child starting to write on his hand, perhaps in a school classroom setting, then had a tag line like, "Be careful what you write. PERMANENT is forever." If you wanted to make the point even more obvious, you could have the teacher (a woman in her 60s, maybe, looking peevish, poorly dressed, obviously not having lived up to her potential) leaning over the child and holding a lesson book so that we can see something written on her wrinkled hand -- something very dated and embarassing, like "I (heart) Ringo." But then, that probably wouldn't mean much outside of the UK and US, would it?

Mara

i would still call the concept flawed. if you *have* to explain it to make it work, then it doesn't work (just like if you have to explain the punch line of a joke, it's not a very good joke). unless you can find a way to make it obvious when looking at it, and without explanation, it won't work.

if someone critiques the work and says it isn't working, it's not up to them to come up with a solution that does work. people here aren't your coworkers, they're just people providing feedback on the work that you've done.

i get the feeling you're stuck on this idea and you're going to try to force it to work, no matter what.

Does anyone else find this whole discussion idiotic?! PICK A NEW IMAGE. End of story.

----
Powerpoint is not a design application
flikWORLD Design

Reincarnation does not come to mind. Focus on their tag line and come up with a NEW concept. -G

Wow. This post is huge. And yes, a whole lot of repetition and back-and-forth business all throughout.

Even though the ad may have shock factor (which works in some cases), it isn't working in your favour when there's more people you're going to hurt, offend, and even make angry at the sight of this, than those very few you may (just may) attract.
It's called weighing both sides.

New Idea is in order!

Katie McDonald

High Quality Business Card Designs

Take a couple of days and miss this mess..

Damn, I wish I'd been here earlier.
I don't find it offensive, it's quite tongue in cheek, but it's not an effective advert be any means at all.

As for the message it's supposed to convey, are you on crack?

okay..

i think that captonjohn understands now that hitler was a bad choice and it seems like he's willing to let it go. i think he wants to know now whether or not the reincarnation theme is worth pursuing?

so, captonjohn:

i'm not a graphic designer, i have no training as a graphic designer, nor have i been involved in advertising outside of just looking at billboards as i drive by. it's people like me that will be seeing your advertisement. i gotta say... i didn't get it. i would have not drawn the connection that the child was a reincarnation of hitler. i would have assumed, instead, that the child was a follower of hitler. i would maybe think of something simpler. cause and effect relationships can be difficult to convey in a single image.

so what is simpler? again...i'm not an ad guru but there are other ways of portraying permanence. maybe a picture of someone just finishing up painting their house with one of the markers, rain clouds rolling in, and then whatever catchy saying underneath that. or have some official holding up government papers in court that have been edited using the marker. next to him a junior officer hastilly marking through a remaining stack of documents. insert another catchy statement.

good luck... and, please, no more hitler!

Do you think we were all duped into performing in a FREE study group based upon hate monger advertising?

ttfn!
3dogmama