As a history major, I have to admit my attention is typically not on advertisements/marketing/public relations etc. When walking on the street, I tend to pay more attention to dates on the side of buildings and any signs of historic architecture. A constant subject of good natured ridicule amongst my friends, I can't tell you how many times I have heard "You are the only person who would notice that"' in reference to my pointing out of some vintage piece of furniture/rug/tea kettle etc. etc. I was doing just this after a movie at the Oriental with my roommates when I spotted this advertisement above New Trier on the Eastside. It was one of those perfect Wisconsin summer nights, the kind where the air has a sense of excitement and somehow creates a time machine in which one is transported back to every warm, starry and mischievous summer night they have had. Maybe it was my current intoxication of nostalgia, but I saw this billboard and immediately said to my roommate "That is what I want to be doing right now, everything about that is where I want to be." Somehow a fairly simple billboard, advertising a beer I am not even especially fond of, made me long for cabin trips with my high school friends like I had never longed before.
As I thought about it, I think the reason this particular advertisement struck such a chord is simple. And by that, I mean the answer is actually in the simplicity of the ad. Who doesn't have memories that include a relaxing lake, a canoe and friends (if there was alcohol involved does not even necessarily matter)? These memories, for me at least, bring me back to a simpler time (because the life of a college kid is just so, so complicated) when I had all the time in the world to spend with my friends, tipping over each others canoes and having canon ball contests. Even the red canoe in the ad holds a soft spot in my heart, for my family has our very own red canoe and some of my earliest childhood memories take place in it. Even the slogan under "It's Shandy Season", which reads "Come Join Us Out Here" evokes a sense of camaraderie, like the makers of Summer Shandy are old friends waiting for you to towel off and come going them for dinner and night games.
To me, this ad is summer. Simple, sweet, sunny summer.
(I actually just told my roommate about how I am officially a blogger now, and mentioned how I was writing about the ad we saw that one time after leaving the Oriental. She informed me that she noticed the other day "they actually took that ad down, I guess summer is really over." Safe to say, it had an impact on more than just myself.)
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