I Hate This Ad Agency Website! What do you think?
I’m asking because I may be too old-fashioned for this Modernista! online approach.
Boston-based advertising agency, Modernista!, has launched a very bizarre new website. It strikes me as appallingly self-conscious and self-centered. It’s hard to describe, but you can see it in red in the image to the right. It lives like a fungus on top of other websites. In this case the Adfreak.com site where I discovered it. Thus,ignore the main website and just look at the red stuff to understand what their website is all about.
As they put it, “The menu on the left is our home page. Everything behind it is beyond our control.” Clearly they are trying to make a statement about the unfathomable depths of their creative force. But, to me it’s just goofy.
If you are somehow inspired to figure out what they are up to and click on ‘ab.ou.t’–which is their way of spelling ‘about’, they say “Modernista is not for everyone.” If you are inspired to click one more time, they tell you this:
We believe the advertising is more of an art than a science and that truly great creative work is priceless in today’s cluttered market of parity products.
Our goal is to work with a select group of clients who love and appreciate great advertising as much as we do and who truly want our help building their brand.
That kind of clichéd mission statement language suggests to me that maybe they’re not all at creative. But, maybe I’m missing the point.
Perhaps this bizarro approach to an ad agency website is appropriate to an age full of clutter. Perhaps, too, they understand their target customer and are confident that this wacky website will be just the ticket in appealing to their particular sensibilities. Obviously, I don’t fit that particular psychographic.
I think you have to work too hard to figure out what they’re up to. Moreover, when you go to some of their creative such as that for TIAA-CREF, it doesn’t look all that spectacularly creative. So, if I was the kind of edgy marketer they seem to be looking for, I think I would’ve been disappointed.
What do you think? Click here to go to Modernista! website.
Trackbacks [0]
There are no trackbacks.
Post Comment
Fields marked with * are required.
Comments [3]
i must not be hip enough. i don’t get it.
Hate is a pretty strong word, but self-centered and narcissistic hit the mark. They strike me as being all about themselves and if I’m hiring an ad agency that isn’t what I’m looking for. I’m looking for someone who is going to be all about my company.
My sentiments exactly. I saw this a couple of months back and thought the idea has some merit but this is just too minimalistic. It did seem to have an “all about me” quality to it. Having worked in ad agencies, this self-centered approach was all-too-familiar.