Art in Stores & Ads in Repetition

I have noticed that many stores try to stand out among others by having some sort of art display, often repeated with a constant theme around the store. I was recently in H&M and the first thing I noticed after walking in was a pile of Polaroid pictures on the floor below a table of clothes. My initial thought was that they fell out of someone's bag or were there by accident. So thinking they could be neat, I bent down to pick them up realizing they were purposefully taped to the floor. After shopping around the huge store, I saw Polaroids taped in other places such as mirrors and below mannequin displays. Polaroids are a bit overdone, but still have an original factor to them. They seem to give a unique, artsy type of feeling wherever they are used. The same applied to H&M.

Who doesn't like a good quote about music? Especially in a the biggest college town where quotes are used in away messages, profiles etc, quotes are just always appreciated. On the escalator up to the second floor of the Virgin Megastore on Newbury Street, the left wall is adorned with quotes about music displayed in decorative typefaces and edgy layouts. When I looked at all the quotes I wanted to write them down because they were fun, unfortunately that would have taken too many trips up and down. :)

To get to Newbury Street, many college kids take the T and go through the Kenmore station. For probably about a year now, Kenmore and some other big stations have had advertisement series' so that one brand covers every place for an ad, walls and floors. Over the summer Kenmore had the iPod/JBL ad series for the iPod dock. The iPod sat in the dock while pink butterflies (for the ladies) and skulls and crossbones (for the punks?) came flowing out, bringing imagery to music. Although not being able to look at anything besides butterflies and skulls gets a little overwhelming, I really enjoyed this ad series. The butterflies were fun and vibrant, and the skulls were edgy and alternative, appealing to the younger, hipper audience.

The ad series that covers Kenmore right now is for Johnnie Walker brand whisky. The ads are certainly eye-catching with simple orange silhouetted images of a man on a sidewalk, against a black background. Intriguing yes. Effective? No. The only thing that let me know the ads were for a brand of alcohol was the small type on only a few posters reading "drink responsibly." I like the ads, because they are neatly designed, but the target audience is obviously not me, because well, I'm only 20.