I was walking through the West Palm Beach International Airport when I saw a great example of too many faces. Unfortunately, TSA wouldn’t let me take the photograph in the area. And a guy with a badge and gun asked me to move on in a friendly, yet firmly persistent manner.
Not the ad I saw in Palm Beach, but a good example of too many faces.
So let me describe what I saw: It was a backlit display ad for a local law firm with more than 20 faces. I’m sure the entire firm was represented. The problem is that the faces all became so small that only the people in the photo could recognize them. For billboards, display ads (in fact any advertising) and digital ads, select three or fewer faces. Also, make the faces large. There is no need to show lots of chests, suit coats or dresses—show faces and make them as large as possible.
My college professor had a saying, “Get closer, bird’s-eye or worm’s eye, but get closer.” What he was saying was to show something we don’t see in advertising. Get low, get high, but get close. Too many faces makes the bodies more prominent than the faces. Too many faces makes it hard to focus. Too many faces means you couldn’t make a tough decision to communicate rather than be politically correct.
Advertising needs to be somewhat uncomfortable to break through the clutter. Get in tight. Show emotion. Stop the same old setup. We’ve all seen it and it just adds to the din of average, safe and amateur photography.
