The moment

I was standing in the tube today completely confused by an ad. It read: "...Or manage over 40 currencies from one current account." It was just hanging in the air like it was missing the beginning of a sentence. I could see it was from the banking company Wise but I had no idea what it was trying to say. Then I looked to the left.

The click

Right next to it was another ad from a company called Unwise: "We'll make it almost impossible to manage multiple currencies by forcing you to open bank accounts in different countries." And just like that it clicked. Unwise was a villain they invented, and together the two ads formed one complete sentence. The "..." from the Wise ad was telling you that you had walked into the middle of something.

I was kinda blown away

I was so invested in the ad at this point I started picking up more: Wise is in bold green, Unwise is white and corporate, its copy printed in red. Even the colours were part of the joke: green means go, red means stop, all of that are decisions that reinforces the same idea.

I've seen brands buy two ad spaces before, but this is the first time I see anyone use them like this. And I'm still thinking about it now, which I guess is exactly the point.

Image: Ace of Hearts