The Hunger Games poster had to be dropped for obvious reasons:
As my sister says, it’s not that hard to be successful given how utterly incompetent many people are.
19 responses to “Incompetent”
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I stared and stared and had no idea what could be wrong…. (I was thinking maybe there are some kind of arcane fascist connotations about the red paint on her face) and I finally had to google what the problem was.
… and I still don’t ‘see’ it that clearly since my brain stubbornly sees an O with an u over it (I can see it but I don’t hear the word in my mind’s ear)*. Nevertheless I’m sure it was on purpose** and they just underestimated how quickly people would pick up on it.
*I ‘hear’ written words when I read (I used to assume everyone did but apparently a lot of people don’t)
**I do believe that sex and death imagery are purposefully put in all kinds of ads, I’m not sure how effective it really is, but I’m sure it’s on purpose
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I stared and stared and had no idea what could be wrong…. (I was thinking maybe there are some kind of arcane fascist connotations about the red paint on her face) and I finally had to google what the problem was
I had to google it as well. My first thought on seeing the poster was “the typography is confusing. People read English from left to right and not in a zigzag on the same line.”That is a sad attempt at being edgy.
As my sister says, it’s not that hard to be successful given how utterly incompetent many people are.
Craigslist Penis Effect in action.
I don’t think people care so much about basic grammar, syntax or flow anymore. It makes life painful for those of us with developed visual and linguistic capacities.LikeLike
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I had the same response as Cliff. It was hard for me to see even after I looked up and read about the gaffe. It’s interesting because, also like Cliff, I “hear” words. Sometimes this leads to embarrassing mistakes. (I will sometimes mix up “two” and “to” for instance if I’m typing quickly.) But one would think that someone in a vastly paid marketing department would have noticed the slip. I would prefer to think it was done purposefully but somehow I doubt it.
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I saw it immediately. I must have a dirty mind.
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I googled it too. You have to be very eagle-eyed to see such a thing though and very over-sensitive to care.
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I saw it immediately. But I work with the written word and see letter patterns everywhere.
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LOL. My husband is a web designer and works with typography on a daily basis. He saw it right away, and we had a good laugh. Jesus, people are so stupid.
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It’ll be back in 90 days because they won’t let go of that joke …
Except in 90 days, it’ll be even more obvious, just for the people who didn’t get it the first time.
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Took me a minute or two…it’s the same reason the UNT radio station’s call letters are KNTU.
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“Cuntil” is a dirty word? 🙂
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It was deliberate for sure.
The objective of the campaign is promote the final movie of a huge franchise 100 days out. If they had not made this “mistake” I would probably have never seen the poster or heard the message. Instead, the poster has to be dumped and the graphic artist gets laughed at, and the company has to act all sheepish and apologetic and innocent while the internet buzzes.
It’s machiavellian, but the message got through, didn’t it?
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I like the way your mind works. 🙂
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“… the graphic artist gets laughed at …”
Except within the advertising firm itself, where he’ll likely get his own personal Nespresso machine to play with, if he doesn’t already have one, as a small token of appreciation for the success of the campaign thus far …
That’s why I said you’ll see it again in 90 days.
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No doubt. I meant he gets laughed at in the public square. He probably even started the “Hey did you see that poster? Lookit what the dummy did!” buzz on the internet.
The worst thing about this type of guerilla advertising is that I can’t shake the idea that the clowns who came up with it are laughing at us. On the way to the bank.
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Nope… no idea what’s wrong with this poster. are people seeing some strange invisible thing I am not?
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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