"Obay" Bus Ads in Canada

i think it's a VERY COOL ad for post secondary education.
for some reason, universities and colleges have been spending enormous amounts on advertising. whole buses, billboards, teevee ads, radio, plastered with "GO TO SCHOOL, GO TO SCHOOL". this seems to be the message, which of course is trickle down from the government.

i think canada wants to be a grey matter farm.

I have been following this thread from Australia. I was shocked to find the ads were for education and I find it a tad creepy. If the higher education system is structured the same as it is here, then they are usually funded by large companies and political thinktanks. I have far more respect for my parents than I do a lecturer being paid by people with agendas. There seems to be a media push to demonise parents as it is. It is a very sophisticated campaign and I will no doubt see something similar here.

it is strong, no doubt. i thought of the 'drive a wedge between parents and offspring' angle, too, but i think at age 18-20, you either love or hate your parents, anyway.

what i like is the poke at psychotronic drugs, and the hinting at brave new world style overmedication of the public. i would hope that at least a few people are slightly shocked out of the everyday by these ads.

I think I seen one of those ads by where I am taking Graphic Design courses at the bus shelter, in Guelph Ontario, I know sooner or later someone is gonna take the ad the wrong way and call the CRTC on Astral Media because of the ads.

Obay is a fictional mind control medication at the centre of a viral marketing campaign begun in February 2008 by Colleges Ontario, the advocacy group for colleges and institutes of applied arts and technology in the province of Ontario, Canada, and developed by the Smith Roberts advertising agency. The campaign seeks to eliminate what the group calls "academic snobbery"[1] on the part of parents, who often see colleges as inferior to universities,[2][3] and who may push their children towards the latter option against their wishes.

en.wikipedia.org...

I know I am late in the game on this thread, but thought this info might come in handy...
DocMoreau

So it was an ad for colleges...I never would have guessed it...


Off topic for a sec,

Where was that picture in the first post taken? It looks oddly like a bus stop in my city.

Well, I guess the counterpart medication would be this one...

Funny, yet against Terms and conditions
***Link Edited for your safety****


[edit on 28-3-2008 by spacedoubt]

[edit on 28-3-2008 by spacedoubt]