Cognitive Dissonance

In advertising, sometimes, disregard for reality is a deliberate choice because the aim is to pique the viewer’s curiosity no matter what. At other times, though, it is the result of cognitive dissonance leading to mismatched reality’s depiction,  as in the case of the prop in this photo, which I took at La Rinascente in Rome, meant  to work as an ad for Swiss International Air Lines and Switzerland as a winter touristic location.

At first, I didn’t understand what was wrong with it. The idea looked fairly average —ordinary, I would say: a plane’s fuselage with windows, and videos were shown as if they were the outside view that passengers usually get during a flight.

Then I finally understood: the way the fuselage is shown makes it look like the passenger was lurking inside the fuselage from outside, stuck to the exterior part of the plane like a gecko on a wall.

I don’t know if this was done on purpose to elicit curiosity from casual passers-by or if it was just a plane and simple mistake. Fact is that the ad worked for me because it made me stop, take the photo and talk about it.

However, the strategy was not entirely successful, as I would never fly with a company that seats passengers outside the plane just to make room for an entertainment system inside.