ISSUE 008

Advertising is obviously not synonymous with "art". But man some advertising can truly be art. Today, I'm going to tell you why I love Polaroid's latest campaign so much... (theres one visual ingredient that im obsessed with)
Before we dive in though, I want to remind you that the July session of NEXT Art Director starts TOMORROW! July 7, 2026 @ 4pm PST / 7pm EST

If you've been waiting to enroll, don't wait any longer. There are 2 video lessons I need you to watch before class starts. It's going to be the best cohort yet.

But for the rest of us, let's look at my fav OOH campaign of the year so far...

---

That Polaroid Blue Ballpoint Pen

My new favorite campaign right now is this anti-ai push from Polaroid. It's not even that original. The anti-AI, do-it-for-real angle has been floating around for a minute now.

But there's one visual ingredient that proves exactly why we still need art directors.

That blue ballpoint pen.

You can say a thing, but it's HOW you say it that slices into your psyche. And a good art director always has a reason. Even when the honest reason is "it just looks right," you still gotta walk stakeholders through why. You always come up with some sort of rationale.

So here's the case for the blue pen.

Blue ink historically signals authenticity. You don't sign a contract in black. Blue is the pen that proves handwriting isn't just black printer ink.

And blue is the personal pen. Family notes. Labeling stuff around the house. The junk drawer pen. It carries a whole life of small, real, human moments before it ever touches this campaign.

That's the ingredient doing the heavy lifting for me. A single color of ink dragging all psychological meaning and mental associations into the work.

The rest is great too. The timing is obviously relevant.

Notice that if they had typeset this, it would have felt very similar to Shot on iPhone. Essentially shot on iPhone with Polaroid pictures. And that's fine. It might have still been a great campaign. Apple doesn't own that specific creative mechanism. But it's this extra detail that does make Polaroid's campaign feel more ownable to Polaroid. We might not always use blue pen, but we do write dates and memories on our Polaroids.

And that's why I love art direction. This isn't a maximalist campaign. I'm not in awe of the craft. I'm more so impressed by the decision making and the restraint. That's why art directors are important.

---

That's it for today's issue of MAD. A quick appreciation of the finer details.

Jason 🤘

---