CRAP Method (Week #2)

Hello again!

This week in our lecture we talked about Robin William's CRAP method. This is a method that is used in all sorts of digital media to help the advertisers grab our attentions and to sell their products. If a form of digital media follows the CRAP principle (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity), the creators can almost control where your eyes look first and what image or images stay in your head long after you've seen the ad.

The first image I found is a movie poster for The Brothers Solomon. The poster uses primary colours that make the viewer subconciously can the poster from top to bottom. The viewer sees the vibrant blue shirt of Will Arnett which is in close proximity to Will Forte's head. The viewer follows Forte's shirt right up to the title of the movie and the lead actors names. This poster would be an example of two of the four CRAP principles. Those principles being Contrast and Proximity. Contrast because the colours of the shirts are so vibrant they compete for your attention and inevitably left my attention at the actors faces. The actor's faces are comical, so you immediately know that this is a comedy. Secondly, the proximity of the poster really helps to sell the movie. Because Will Arnett's body is right side up and Will Forte's is upside down, the viewer follows an almost invisible path to the title. Which is exactly what the creators of this poster want. They want you to know that The Brothers Solomon is a silly movie just from the poster and that it looks funny enough to go see.

The

second image I found uses a great deal of repetition, the second CRAP principle. The main repetition in this poster is the list of celebrities in the same, grey, nondescript font. This instinctively made me read through the list of celebrities, close enough that I could actually read them, when I was surprised by the title, Pauly Shore is Dead. The title immediately grabs your attention with it's larger font size and colour. In this case the repetition in this ad is dull and boring so that the title will really stand out, and i

t does! Not only is the font and colour surprising to the viewer, but so are the actual words in the title. This made me wonder if maybe Pauly Shore was actually dying. Is he close to death? These are all questions that could only be answered if I saw the movie. It is also worth noting that the red on Shore's shoes match the colour red in the title. Could this be foreshadowing? Does Pauly Shore have some sort of fatal foot disease? Or is this just a blatant advertisement for Adidas?

This image uses the CRAP principle of alignment. The text is aligned around the "butt" so that the viewer sees the product on the body first, and then reads the text around it. The text follows the shape of the body so that every line you read, you read along with the curves of the product. This keeps the viewers focus on the script, but also to what Nike is trying to sell you. The colour pink is also used a lot to so that women can associate with this ad and that it is not a sports illustrated special for men.

This advertisement for a brazilian liquor uses the CRAP principle of alignment first and foremost. I immediately saw the beer and followed the neck of the bottle right up to the holders breasts. I'm sure I would have noticed the breasts otherwise, but the creator of this ad has made it so that you see the product first, and what their product is associated with. I got the impression that this company was all about having a good time, playing in the sun, and enjoying an ice cold Bit Copa. The format of the ad is what gave me this impression. There are bright colours, pictures of flowers, and women in bikinis. All of these elements form a great frame for their product.

I feel that the CRAP principle is definitely a great tool if you want to create a successful piece of digital media. You can see what your creation might include already and what it may be missing. A digital media creator can manipulate where the public looks first and what they remember about their advertisement. Which makes this a very effective principle.

Phil