I think it is an effective ad; at least effective from the point of view of the ad agency. In no way am I motivated to go out and get a Visa Signature card, but I have lingered on their print ads much longer than a typical ad and I even went to the associated interactive web site (click here). My interest all had to do with the Life Lists featured in the ads.
A week or so ago I heard an interesting segment on NPR’s Talk of the Nation about “Life Lists”. I guess the trend started in earnest with bird watchers who wanted to check-off birds they had seen in the wild (if you search “life lists” on Amazon, birding books will be among the highest results shown). Now there are a slew of “things to do before you die” books and even a movie or two in the works on the same topic.
Here are some audacious things on my non-comprehensive lifetime To-Do list:
- Visit Machu Pichu
- Learn to ride a unicycle
- Learn Spanish
- Visit the pyramids at
- Sky dive
- Run a half marathon (maybe a full one too)
- Climb the Tetons
- Do an Olympic distance triathlon
- Beat the turkey at least once more
- Visit the natural history museum in
- Visit the Louvre
- Travel to
- Return to Japan
- Visit all 50 states
- Go on a cross country motorcycle trip with my brothers
- Attend the
- White water raft down the
- Return to
- Teach all of my kids how to ride a bike
- Ride
- A week at Disney World
- Touch a Redwood in the wild
- Buy and learn how to use an SLR camera
- See
