Brands Buy Media To Save Consumers From Advertising

Dropping a total of $2.2 million dollars, South Korea’s Hyundai Card has bought out all media space in the newly opened subway station just outside their building. Next, they put up ads that are largely blank and state, “The world is flooded with too many ads, for a short while we want to leave it empty for you.”

White space is an old trick for making an ad stand out, offering a stark contrast with the surrounding cluttered environment. The decision to paradoxically save consumers from advertising with an ad campaign is not necessarily new either, we’ve reported on anti-branding efforts by the likes of Starbucks and clothing brand Freshjive.

Three years ago, Philips Electronics of the Netherlands tried similar tactics as part of global campaign built around a “simplicity” theme. It bought all the ad time on one episode of the U.S. news magazine show “60 Minutes,” and gave most of it back to the show to run longer stories with fewer commercial breaks. McDonald’s also recently bought 8 hours of prime time ad space on Hulu, and created an advertising-free block of programming to promote its McCafe line of products.

[via wsj]