Have a look at the pix of a billboard on Wellington’s Adelaide Road.

Now, I walk past this most mornings, and have the comparative luxury of enough time to figure out what it is trying to say.

It took me a couple of goes, and a bit of time to do so.

But pity the poor motorist trying to make sense of it.

And pity the Automobile Association, its Smartfuel promotion, and their partners BP and Caltex – they’ve paid for a pup.

I’m not disputing the advertisement’s cleverness.

However, it is a roundabout way of telling people purchasing petrol through the AA’s Smartfuel card that it is a cheaper way of doing things.

It’s cleverness gets in the way of simplicity.

If a message isn’t simple, how can you expect drivers to understand it (or people coming to your website where you have a couple of seconds to grab and hold their attention)?

Beyond its lack of simplicity, whether or not it appeals to people’s’ emotions is also debatable.

The ‘character’ playing the ‘I’ isn’t someone most of us would aspire to be – even if it is trying to portray someone from 1998 who is keen on a bargain (if that’s what/who it is meant to be?).

Whether it is meant to look like a Bill Gates type is another question?

So, all in all, this billboard advertisement doesn’t do what you’d want it to do – inspire me to either use or get an AA Smartfuel card.

It is essentially an own goal.