Nobody has time to go away. We're booked to the hilt and stumble from weekend to weekend, at which time we come up for air and realize that six months have passed. If you're still crawling back into some semblance of productivity from your Super Bowl high, the sensation must be even worse: Queen Bey can't save you now.
So, instead of baiting us with warm beaches and tropical cocktail umbrellas flanked by fetching contrasting bikinis (because do those work, really...?), Ethos Travel went in another direction: It flings busyness back into our faces and reminds us why we need a vacation.
The "Time to Get Away" campaign from McCann London is simple but relatable. Each print ad features a week's glimpse at a typically convoluted online calendar ... except the events compose a much bigger message: The calendar boxes spell out headlines like "Fuck my life," "Save me now," and "End this hell," followed by the tagline, "Time to get away."
There's something discomfiting about seeing the messages one after the other; it kinda reads like the beginning of a nervous breakdown. But for those who spent New Year's struggling to seize a semblance of control over calendar-creep, the message is clear: The world will always want something from you. You will never have time to run away and take a breather. So, take stock of the damage of the next couple of months, skip ahead a bit and plan some time off before you wake up in the morning and it's 10 years later.
Because if work never ends, that probably means it can wait.
Check the variations out below.
"Help me god"
"Make it stop"
"Save me now"
"End this hell"
