See the full ad at The Cool Hunter
I’ve been posting a lot about American Apparel print ads because, frankly, the web ads have been fairly uninspired. They’re often colorful, but usually aren’t too eye-popping when compared to their print work.
This is different though. One of my friends sent me this ad on The Cool Hunter today (those screenshots don’t do it justice) and it’s refreshingly unique. It’s integrated with the site and the animation is not nearly as intrusive as the normal ones you see. The staggered stop-motion transitions are a bit odd at first, but the slow dissolve into the typical tagline is nice. On top of that, the sexuality isn’t explicit. It’s certainly highly suggestive, but it’s not tongue-in-cheek or full out pornographic like some.
The thing that I love most about the ad is how it is made specifically for The Cool Hunter layout. They could have just put one ad on one side. If the “Zip It Up, Zip It Down” was what they were going for, it could have been one animation. But how one starts up and finishes only for the next one to continue the narrative, it flows seamlessly on a site that allows for two skyscrapers, at the very least showing a basic understanding of the medium they’re designing for.
The thing about web ads, AA or not, that has always bothered me was the haphazard and reckless remnant placing everywhere you’d go. (I get it, Snorg Tees. You sell ironic and not-at-all-funny t-shirts.) In the past, American Apparel has been a fairly bad abuser of this system too. But this shows an understanding of the site and the audience with an interesting animated ad (which is usually an instant turnoff for me), and I hope they continue to make more like this.