INSITE OOH Media Platform

In Dubai’s outdoors advertising scene, everything is already visible. Architecture work, automobiles function, and the skyline is insistent rather than merely existing. Therefore, any brand that enters that market is already at a disadvantage. You are in a system that has perfected it is in competition with you. This is the reason Police’s new OOH campaign with Zac Efron works, and they’re regenerating a tried-and-proved-true formula like their last OOH campaign. 

Police’s billboards pull away from it. Just one picture. Just one word. It doesn't need to explain itself or try to amuse you. They utilize their sleek eyewear and the magnitude of Zac Efron’s presence. It's about what he currently stands for, perfectly in line with the ad copy, “Audacity Wanted”. 

Efron occupies a very particular cultural space: he is well-known throughout the world without being overexposed. He exudes familiarity without being approachable, a direct result of his ‘Troy Bolton’ stardom stage. His image has changed from that of a polished teen idol to one that is more subdued and reserved, and this change reflects precisely what this campaign is attempting to convey.

He is not making contact with the camera, or even striking a pose. In fact, the power resides in the gap that is created when the image is held back just enough. Nothing is being sold to you. You're being excluded from it, almost like Police is a special club where only exclusives get in. Your ticket in? To purchase a pair of their sunglasses.

You are positioned outside of it, as though the fashion wear brand is a closed system to which you are not inherently a part. Entry is not offered; it is implied. The product becomes more of a prerequisite for access than an actual item.

Clarity is rewarded in Dubai, but subtlety is not. And in this campaign, the clarity comes from refusing to say more. What the campaign is really offering is a restrained form of audacity in marketing, not just eyeglasses or a picture.

The campaign landed on Dubai’s uni-pole billboards in the second week of March.