The Ad That Turned Heads

Creative Strategy & Advertising Effectiveness

 

Newspaper ads may not have the visual appeal of a polished campaign, a striking billboard, or a beautifully produced brand film, yet they still have a place in the marketing mix. Sometimes, a simple idea in an unexpected format can outperform work with a much bigger production budget.

If it works, it works.

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While working on advertising for Tashleat Travel Tours in Saudi Arabia, I developed a black and white newspaper ad that broke response rate records for the company. I never kept a copy, which is something I still regret.

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Working with an Arabic copywriter, we built the concept around a simple tagline: Tours that will turn your world upside down. The ad was deliberately placed upside down in the newspaper, with a thin horizontal strip featuring a woman's eyes serving as the visual focal point. Everything else was inverted, creating an immediate visual interruption that encouraged readers to stop and look twice.

The thinking was simple. The eyes would catch the reader's attention, while the unusual orientation would create enough curiosity to prompt a closer look. To read the advertisement properly, readers had to turn the newspaper around, physically acting out the very idea behind the tagline.

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I still remember the newspaper calling twice to confirm that we really wanted the advertisement printed upside down. We explained that it was intentional, with only the eyes and the text in the narrow horizontal strip remaining correctly oriented. It was an unusual request, but that was precisely the point.

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The campaign generated an exceptional response for the client and publicity that extended beyond the advertisement itself. It remains one of the projects I remember most clearly, not because it was the most beautiful or visually sophisticated piece of design I have produced, but because the concept, the strategy, and the results came together so effectively. I have designed so many newspaper ads over the years that I have lost count. This is the one I wish I had kept.

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I still tell my students to keep copies of their work. You never know what you might want to revisit years later. Sometimes, the most valuable piece in your portfolio is not the one that looks the best.

It is the one that reminds you what a well-considered idea can achieve.

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