Raging about a New Advertisement in Costa Rica

I find some of the advertising campaigns we see in Costa Rica amusing but there’s a new one which has really struck a nerve – like a route canal with a pneumatic drill – and I wanted to see if you felt the same way about it…

A company called Diesel which is supposedly a fashion company and not a petroleum products company has a new advertising campaign plastered all over the upscale sections of San Jose, Costa Rica.

The advertising campaign is called “Are You Global Warming Ready?”

In this ‘imaginative’ advertising campaign they show images of a city under water, with the first 20+ floors of the Empire State Building submerged as is half of the Statue of Liberty.

Their two minute online video starts seriously but after one minute dissolves into absurdity with “Hold on …! Global warming cannot stop our lives.” It then shows a variety of scenes, including one where a young man slathers sun cream over the back of a woman as she leans against a palm tree with the water level nearly covering the Mount Rushmore National Memorial behind them.

Well sorry to state the obvious but if the water level in New York City is covering most of the Empire State Building and the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, it will “stop” billions of lives.

You can see their “Global Warming Ready” campaign on their Diesel website here and I can only assume that these advertisements were created by a “hip” and obviously twisted group of nineteen year olds who seem to find it amusing to joke about something that could literally mean the end of the human race.

Somehow I don’t see the humour in it and I will never, ever consider buying any Diesel product but no doubt this will be one of the campaigns where the advertising agencies hand out awards to each other for ‘creativity’ yet they never seem to hand out awards for success in sales, I wonder why that is?

Am I being overly sensitive about this? Is there a subtle joke here that I’m missing? Would love to know your thoughts on this…

Written by Scott Oliver in a tizzy, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.