Christmas is now little but a fading memory, and with the new year spread out before us in an endless procession of meetings, events and duties, many of us are facing a year long depression head on. Jammed calendars sit on many a desktop, and they can lead us to believe we'll never escape the drudgery of office life. Ethos Travel knows this all too well, which is why they spend the first month bombarding us with enticing ads featuring glossy models on equally glossy beaches, the antithesis of our current, desk-bound lives. They promise adventure, excitement and escape.
Taking a more enigmatic approach, luxury travel company Ethos Travel is launching a new campaign featuring hectic work calendars shaped to spell out the sentiments that spring to mind when work gets on top of us - such as ‘FML’, ‘Make It Stop’, ‘Save Me Now’, ‘End This Hell’ and ‘Help Me God,’ the kind of phrases we all try to hider under our breathes when the boss walks by. Ethos Travel’s “Time To Get Away” campaign, created by McCann London, avoids the usual holiday advertising clichés of sandy beaches and turquoise seas and instead conveys how most people feel at this time of year.
“Everyone can relate to the knee-jerk reaction that happens after seeing what’s in store for you on your first month back”
It aims to remind people to book their holidays early, before their work calendars take over. “Time To Get Away” launched on January 28th, the first payday of 2016 for the majority of people, targeting those who have recovered financially from the festive spending binge and are better able to put holiday plans into action. The ads will run nationwide in the press and on major OOH sites.
Laurence Thomson, Co President & Chief Creative Officer at McCann London, said: “This work is based on my own post-Christmas calendar. Everyone can relate to the knee-jerk reaction that happens after seeing what’s in store for you on your first month back.” Sam Collins, Co-Founder of Ethos Travel, added: “The world is inundated with the same holiday ads in January, so in order to stand out we decided to do something different.”
