It's a bird. It's a plane. No wait, it's Paraman!

I was set the task of 'adding value' to an everyday product, something quite boring, functional, that we take for granted. My product was paracetamol. To enhance this, I looked at the packaging. A common problem with paracetamol is the fiddly packaging, and this packaging's lack of durability/poor practicality. I thought to myself, if only there was a durable and portable form of packaging for paracetamol. My solution was to create a small plastic cylinder container, which releases the capsules at the click of a button. I called this product Paradrops.

My next task was to formulate an advertising campaign for the product. What I wanted, was a really strong hook. Something to target my primarily male target market. I eventually developed the idea of a superhero. This was to be a very novelty, quite cheesy character...but one that sticks in the audiences head. If I could generate public interest in the product, then sales would soon follow.

The campaign was to be executed across three phases. The first, as shown above, was a series of ambient billboards. On these would be a 'projection' of the Parasign. This is of course the call to action for my fictitious hero Paraman. This phase of the campaign was to be left ambiguous, as was phase two. The concept behind this part was manikins of Paraman, placed all over towns and cities in stereotypical heroic places. Such as rooftops, and on gothic churches. The result being people being able to see the hero, take note of such an unusual event, but still not really know whats going on. Phase three, was to be the reveal. As illustrated above, phase three is a newspaper ad campaign. The page would act as a fake front cover for local newspapers. It tells people who Paraman is, and how he saves the distressed from pain. This is all encompassed in a fake news story. Finally, to hammer home the product, is an actual advert for Paradrops, placed at the base of the page.

All in all, these three phases create a multi-media world which promotes my product.

Does this campaign work for you?

Nostalgia over use?

During my conceptual development for my current ad campaign, I ventured into into the subject of superheroes. This in turn led to researching hero parodies...namely: Mr Muscle.









Ah yes, Mr Muscle, 'Loves the jobs you hate'. I'm sure that you, like me, have a degree of nostalgia and fondness towards this nerdy character. To me, he represents a significant area of 90's design. Now, I'm sure that I'm not alone when I say that I was outraged to see the latest Mr Muscle adverts. The second image is NOT Mr Muscle! This 'new and improved' digital version has been unanimously rejected by anyone that I've spoken to about it. However, it brings up the question of...why?

In actuality, the new character makes much more sense to the product. For one, he actually has muscles! He looks like he could be a bit of a hero, and genuinely help you out. Whereas the former looks a bit, weedy. He doesn't represent the concept of the product at all. I know that it was meant to be humorous and ironic, and that's all well and good. But if the current design was released first, then nobody would have questioned it.

It makes me wonder, does our nostalgic side make us instantly reject new ideas? Do we take it as a personal insult to our childhood when a famous character is changed, re-branded, or digitalised? It would be interesting to see what different generations feel about this subject.

A final thought:- Do we as a society reject the ever changing world around us? Is this because we want to cling to our youth? Are we sometimes afraid to move on?

(I bet you didn't think that I could go this sociological over Mr Muscle did you)

Thoughts anyone?