Skull Ads

This is an ad for the Skulls exhibit hosted by the California Academy of Sciences, a famous natural history museum in San Francisco, California. It has used typography in a very unique way to create deeper meaning and involves some insight from the viewer. ”. The shakiness and scary-movie poster structure and look of the font and its colour all match the colour scheme of the structure and the curves and shape of the lines of copy all blend together. For the average person, they may see an animal skill. But for a student that attends the California Academy of Sciences, they see history and depth. The type takes the form of the skull as if to emphasize every curve and detail of the shape tells a story, which is true for someone well versed in osteology or anatomy. The ad builds up intrigue and mystery with its spooky, haunting-looking copy, such as “I was hungry and so were my twins” and “bite them with my big sharp teeth”, to try and create interest

Most of their ads do seem to be on the “edgy” side, as with their series of ads featuring animals and insects mating with censorship blurs on them. So as far as strategy alignment goes, these ads seem to continue to break the colourful, family-friendly museum ad standard. I think this is an effective piece. It uses a very unique and refreshing approach to the typically visually-centric ads museums typically use in order to not completely give away what’s in the exhibit and entice people to come. There’s typically a stereotype that in museums you stand in front of an exhibit reading a boring, textbook-like description. The use of tone and imagery invoked by this type shatter that preconception. That would also be impossible to do by just using photography in this