Honolulu Star Advertiser's Bracket Challenge
Below are a few digital depictions of the 2011 inaugural "Honolulu Star Advertiser's Bracket Challenge" advertising campaign. The project played off of stock antique photographs throughout the month-long promotion—the tongue-in-cheek juxtaposition of serious "back in my day" imagery of [distinguished] gentlemen placed along side modern "smacktalk" was the thread used throughout the advertising campaign intended to appeal to the competitive side of the viewer while also openly making fun of itself—because, as anybody that has done a "March Madness" bracket knows, it's always the least knowledgable person that usually comes in first place based solely off of team color preference and not mystical sports wizdom. All of the imagery, from early 20th century portrait photography, was selected with the intent of coming across as opely satirically so as to break the ice for the first-timers while also evoking the lighthearted—yet fiercely competitive—nature within your typical "March Madness" office pool officionado.
The intent of this project was to create a series of ads that would leave a lasting impression on the viewer with the help of a bit of humor and building suspense as the overall points getters started to take shape and, in true smacktalk fashion, start to get called out for their picks (or lack thereof) with each passing round. The first three teaser ads listed below are intentionally vague so as to pique the interest of the non-bracket audience, with the remaining spots directed at those involved in the competition to keep visiting the scoreboards (and thus giving more return "targets/hits" to our site).
Drew may have won the competition—and thus the title of 2011 Champ—but our devious sportswriters had the last laugh!
(For the record… I had to really push for this last "Congrats" design. But, at the end of the day, the true bracket paizano will get far more of a rise out of such an homage to his superior college knowledge than he/she ever would be insulted by such a gesture… Even at that, and if all else failed, the all-expense-paid trip to Vegas always trumps the sourpuss… even at that, and with all that said, the "terms" checkbox provision still granted us full discretion on the use of Drew's likeness as a term of accepting the Grand Prize. A win-win for all.
