Bursting Bubbles: a matter of execution.

This is going to be quite an exercise in pedantry & I feel especially bad about nitpicking the work of a student rather than a polished print ad from an actual agency... But this examples provides a nice cautionary tale about not only overexerting style-over-substance, but simultaneously using too many styles that ultimately clash.

Alrighty, let's have a look at this bad boy. The concept is certainly clever: Hubba Bubba bubbles can get so big you'll float away. Hilarious. Classic. And a fantasy we can all get carried away with. But before we get to that all-important 'ah-ha' moment we have to think about whether it's meant to look like an oil painting or a photo, whether or not it's meant to look like the bubble is heading towards that dark cloud... and the more we get caught up in these 'Why' traps at first glance, the less impact the central 'What' idea of the ad will have. Most importantly, we should remember that the prime target for Hubba Bubba is sugar-fuelled kids. With their ADHD-microsecond attention spans, they may not even stay long enough to process through these thematic layers. They may not even stay on the page long enough to see the person dangling under the bubble, and thus miss the whole point of the piece.

I knocked this together to see how the same idea
would work with a different execution.
(Thanks to Alicia for holding an awkward pose well.)
Slogan ideas, anyone?

Moreover, we should take a second to consider not just who buys bubble gum, but what bubble gum essentially is. Utterly impractical & superfluous, bubble gum is the very embodiment of novelty.

"I think gum is one of the weirdest human inventions. It's not a liquid, it's not a solid, it's not a food. What is it? It isn't really anything, you know?I mean, it's like a stationary bike for your jaw."

- Jerry Seinfeld.

This is why so many of the best Hubba Bubba ads centre around a sense of absurdity transforming the world. From putting up bubbles on other billboards, to every stroke of genius that Sydney DDB has done for the brand. Subtlety simply doesn't work with a product that is so inherently frivolous. You can't just take a landscape & pop a bubble into the distance; you've got to have that ridiculous bubble shape the fantasy world of the ad concept.

/mr_metaphor.

Of course, sometimes you use a creeping sense of subtlety on your audience to ram home a hilarious punchline. Again, I can't stress enough how much Sydney DDB have nailed the essence of Hubba Bubba's glorious silliness.