Buitoni has an OOH campaign running in the 14th Street Union Square subway station right now. Yes, that's right -- a company is advertising food in one of the dirtiest places in the city. Images of delicious "masterpiece" dishes of artfully composed ravioli and fettucini are pasted on walls that are caked with filth and are adjacent to garbage cans, trash and peeling paint. Yum.
The idea of showing how Buitoni's pasta, sauce and cheese products can come together to look beautiful and appetizing is good. Such a benefit is believable and it's good to see how, when done right, these already prepared dishes can transform into meals that look like they were yanked from Giorgione's kitchen.
It seems, however, that the reasons why the media planners chose this location to place the ads were far too left-brained: the reach (tons of commuters every day), the proximity to a point of purchase (Food Emporium), and the dimensions and variety of available media (big walls, turnstiles, etc.). If you look at the shot above of the six dishes arranged horizontally on the beam above the L, there is rust, dirt and peeling paint. I'm sorry, but my mind is not getting in the hungry mood and I'm distracted by the unsightly surroundings. My memory may retain the idea of "Buitoni" but that idea is not connected to hunger so I don't retain it as well. A simple product shot and logo could have done that in lieu of this faux museum.
The actual campaign -- food as art -- is a tired one and is a waste of an idea to get across the concept that food can look artfully good and is therefore delicious. Perhaps an in-store placement would have been a far better way to reach consumers since it's clear the proximity of Food Emporium upstairs was the reason why they chose this subway station. I'm definitely not going to pause in my commute -- New Yorkers do not stroll or meander through subway stations -- to read a fake museum card talking about the ingredients of a pasta dish, let alone write the phone number down (which I can't dial from my BlackBerry anyway because the letters don't match up with the numbers) and call it from an underground location where I can't get phone service. I called the number -- for the purposes of this critique -- and discovered that you hear a brief museum-like explanation of the "art" you're looking at and you continue to dial the number associated with the piece of "art" you're facing. It's not that big of a pay off, but it makes the campaign 360. And that's all that matters so woo-hoo.
I don't think everyone corralled behind this as a brilliant idea. Rather, I think the client needed something and cut back on spend so that a good smart idea could not have been reached. Instead of creative concepting, the budget clearly went entirely to media.
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