Billboard uses natural scenery to enhance product advertising
I stumbled upon this clever piece of advertising by design agency Leo Burnett (their website is lovely incidentally) for Koleston Naturals hair products and was impressed with how such a simple idea has been executed so stylishly.
Their billboard design utilises the stunning scenery behind the advert via a simple glamorous illustration die cut out of the board itself. This is designed to (according to the agency, and I am inclined to agree) highlight the beauty and variety of the shades of hair dye they produce as well as the all natural ingredients of their products. This is achieved by the hair changing colour throughout the day and night based on the position of the sun behind the poster. Not something that would work in every country or location but definitely a lovely use of the wonderful countryside around the area the posters were used.
The shots where the sun is directly behind make me curious as to how the poster would have looked had only the hair been die-cut – or if the logo had also been cut out so it would glow as well (it seems a little lost in a few shots) but it is hard to tell how well the logo could be seen by passers by from a photo.
The illustration is particularly beautiful in its elegant simplicity and really shows off the beauty aspect of the product. I also really like the fact that they are promoting this from the beauty angle rather than the becoming-slightly-repetitive green washing angle many company’s using natural ingredients seem to be taking of the last few years. This is very striking visually and also communicates the messages of the brand in a subtle but unmissable way – it definitely leaves the viewer with a strong impression of the brand and what it stands for, even if they do not analyse the reasons why. Clever advertising that works even if you do not think it through, is clever advertising indeed.
This is one of those designs were on first inspection I thought it was beautiful, then my cynical eye saw it as a blatant awards submission piece, but luckily, as well as probably winning some awards, it (unlike many award pieces) also serves the purpose designed for very well, so we will let it off the hook on that count 
