Rate This Face allows a billboard designer to rate a random piece of billboard artwork using the following scale: 1 (not good), 2 (below average), 3 (average), 4 (very good), 5 (great). Then the designer talks about what they may have done differently for outdoor advertising. This week’s rating is provided by Greg Callaham www.gregcallaham.com) who has 30 years of experience in outdoor advertising design.  Insider has used and endorses Callaham’s services.

Michelob Ultra Pure Gold

Rating: 3 (average)

• This ad for Michelob Ultra Pure Gold is clear and simple in its design. There’s a seven-word headline reversed out of a non-distracting-but-still-identifiable background photo and a close-up of the product and product name. It’s alcohol so there’s the required disclaimer at the bottom and there you go. It’s a billboard advertising the product. So, to sum up, if you stop to buy beer on the way home tonight after seeing this board and you choose this brand of beer, this outdoor ad worked.
• However, there’s something else going on here. The selling message does not speak directly to the features and benefits of direct use of this product. That’s advertising in its simplest form: Are you thirsty? Then drink this! You have a problem and this solves it. No, this headline refers to a bigger, broader effort the manufacturer is pushing to convert farmland to organic growing methods by rewarding farmers for doing so. I had to look it up on their web site and it took scrolling all the way to the bottom of that web site for them to explain it. Don’t get me wrong; it’s an admirable program. I don’t think it can be explained on a billboard. So, I’m left wondering if the advertiser feels like the ad did its job, because it made me want a beer and it made me visit their online presence and learn what the heck the headline meant.
• While I’m grateful to expand my knowledge, I’m not so sure the John and Jane Q. Public would take that second step. It’s a good design that would have earned a 4, but the cryptic tagline costs it a point because the message is part of the design.  This one gets a 3 (average).

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