Never Stop Exploring

http://www.fuelyourbranding.com/the-5-dimensions-of-brand-personality/

This is a photo of a North Face advertisement. This photo is a shot of a mountain cliff high up in the sky. The clouds appear to be far down below. You can see the adventurous hikers and their tents that they have set up on the peak. The colors are grey and dark. Then there is a glimmer of sunlight coming through from behind the mountain peak. It has almost a heaven-like essence.

This advertisement is painting us a picture full of romantics. The romantics are being constructed through the breathtaking frigidness and sense of being one with nature that appears in the photo. The darkness is beginning to be overturned by the light sparkling through from behind the peak. The natural piety of the calm and cold peak with the hikers brings a sense of reassurance and hope. There is a glimmer of light coming from beyond the peak, signifying the hope and happiness that is always around the corner after a period of darkness. This is where people will want to go to escape from the realities of their everyday struggles and feel on top of the world. There is a sense of openness being portrayed.  The heavens are opening themselves to allow a new beauty in. Rousseau’s quote, “Societies soon multiplied and spread over the face of the earth, till hardly a corner of the world was left in which a man could escape the yoke, and withdraw his head from beneath the sword which he saw perpetually hanging over him by a thread” proclaims that there was no where left in this world for people to escape from their problems and explore what’s new and beautiful. All of the people were forever going to be haunted by their evils. This ad argues that there is an escape. There is a new place to explore, and this new place is truly amazing. One mustn’t give up because they don’t know what is awaiting them. The constructionalism done by The North Face here shows a place inhibited by very few people, and full of beautiful natural peaks, clouds and snow that freeze in time the emotions that are stirring in everyone’s troubled hearts. It is the longed for escape.

Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads has a quote that would work well also. It goes like this, “Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because, in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings, and, from the necessary character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended, and are more durable; and, lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.” I believe that this quote proves my analysis of this advertisement perfectly. People want to escape to a natural state that is away from life’s common complications. They want simple everlasting.

 

"Hope on the Horizon" by Greg Olsen http://www.gregolsen.com/hope-on-the-horizon-12897

Like briefly mentioned before, this ad almost reminds me of a sense of heavenly portrayals. The above painting is titled “Hope on the Horizon”. The romantics are similar to those of the one in the advertisement. The people in the advertisement are hidden in the shadows of the sorrows, but the hope and light are shortly on their way. The heaven-like gleam of the ad can also be reflected in this painting as well. Heaven is the bright eternal hope that many seek out. Heaven is what many believe to be the escape from all of the bad in our world today. It is the hope for a better tomorrow, and a reminder to never give up.

Overall, I think that The North Face chose to use this ad to promote their gear as the perfect escape for someone who wants to leave their troubles all behind and escape to the beauty of nature. The consumer wants more quality in their tomorrow, and if someone were to buy these products they will receive the quality being demanded. They will get to escape the darkness and seek out what they long for. The explorative journey towards a happier time is just over the peak; it just needs to be sought out and those seeking should “never stop exploring.”