Mazda ads are a tricky business

From the car company that brought us “interactive” advertising – forcing the average punter to increase the volume on their television set to hear what was being said and then video it to get the message – we have a new initiative: Photosynthetic advertising. The Japanese manufacturer Mazda is in talks with an east London printer to launch posters which react with sunlight but disappear to leave an empty site at night. This, of course, poses all sorts of media-buying questions, not to mention effectiveness, given the UK’s inclement weather conditions. “It has been looked at,” confirms a Mazda source, “we are considering a number of different interactive advertising techniques but at the moment we are not able to reveal specifics.” The source says the posters are still firmly on the agenda but no decision will be made on Mazda’s future advertising for at least two months. “Rather than establishing advertising needs Mazda seems more concerned with ad trickery,” says one rival manufacturer. At least it gives Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury another chance to forge its reputation and corner the market in the bizarre.