Why we love this
Joe sent Jack a blurry (ironic) photo of this on his way to the gig last year.
So, so good.
Steal this for your brand
Look, we could over-intellectualise this ad until the cows come home.
(And if you've read other bits of the swipe file, you'll know what we mean.)
But really, this is just a banger of an ad.
We especially like that they could have gone with a quick "Can't look back in anger? We can help." ad and called it a day, but they kept going until they landed on this line.
(Pro tip: if you're trying to newsjack or tie into something cultural, looking for that shared idea or theme and playing off of that rather than a simple pun is what separates OOH-level copy from the kind of copy you whack in an email.)
And the reason it works so well as an outdoor ad specifically is that there's nothing really salesy in it at all. No offer. No CTA. No "book your eye test today."
They set out to make 50,000 people smile and immediately want to photograph it. (Which is exactly what Joe did.)
And sometimes the best brief you can give yourself is "write something people will want to show their mates."
With top of funnel and awareness stuff especially, that's 90% of the battle. (We mean, how many ads have you seen that have washed over you entirely?)