Landscape Lighting

[KristineS]

I have to agree with the comments about the before and after pictures. It's completely unrealistic and it kind of defeats the effectiveness of the other side of the ad. The other side looks like something a prosperous, responsible, respectable business would put out. The side with the contrasting houses imitates used car sales tactics, at least in my opinion.

[Steve B]

"Really, it made me laugh. But I'm not sure that was the intended effect. If it was, you nailed it."

Apparently I nailed it then. Since it's obviously not the same house, it was meant to be humorous. I showed it to a guy yesterday and he cracked up as soon as he saw the before picture.

I guess it's dangerous attempting humor. I picked a radically different house just to make sure people didn't take it literally and realize it was humor. Hopefully, nobody will really think I'm implying you can quadruple the size of your house, remove a porch, fix the roof, paint the door, change the color and material of the siding, and add a huge tree lined driveway just by adding some landscape lighting. But, I could be wrong.

[Dan Furman]

"Really, it made me laugh. But I'm not sure that was the intended effect. If it was, you nailed it."

Apparently I nailed it then. Since it's obviously not the same house, it was meant to be humorous. I showed it to a guy yesterday and he cracked up as soon as he saw the before picture.

I guess it's dangerous attempting humor. I picked a radically different house just to make sure people didn't take it literally and realize it was humor. Hopefully, nobody will really think I'm implying you can quadruple the size of your house, remove a porch, fix the roof, paint the door, change the color and material of the siding, and add a huge tree lined driveway just by adding some landscape lighting. But, I could be wrong.

The humor here doesn't quite work for me, as a reader really won't be "sure" it's intentional. I mean, I laughed, but I wasn't sure I was meant to. Here's how you can improve it:

put a "footnote" asterisk after the "imagine what.." sentence. Then on the bottom where you explain the asterisk, in really small letters, say "To experience the full effect of this type of transformation, winning the lottery is also suggested. But hey, those are still some really nice lights, aren't they?"

Now there's no doubt.

[Steve B]

That's a great suggestion Dan.

[KristineS]

That is a terrific suggestion, Dan. It totally changes the feel of the picture and allows the potential customer to be in the joke.

[rezzy]

Agreed. Making the joke stated helps.

[prova.fm]

I thought the flyer was funny. I couldn't help but laugh, a few times.

[vangogh]

I got the joke too and thought it was funny. I thought it was obvious that the difference wasn't just the lighting. However I do see everyone's point about it. I think Dan's copy does a good job or reinforcing the joke without anyone mistaking it.

[nealrm]

The ad looks good to me. Adding the text about winning the lottery is a good point. I'm not sure how this looks in print, but I think the photos could be better. Get with a professional real estate photographer in your area. With a little bit of HDR processing, he/she should be able to get the lighting AND show the house details.

[Blessed]

OK - so I'm late to the discussion here

Anyway... I do like the front of the flyer and the back - with Dan's suggested wording to make sure that everyone "gets" the joke is great. Humor in advertising really is a fine line to walk... sometimes it works, sometimes though, when people don't "get" the joke it completely undermines everything you've ever done. Adding the copy keeps the humor, will draw more people in and eliminates the risk of having people not "get it"