There was a client several years back that said he wanted to go after a younger crowd for his LASIK surgery business. He wanted ads that would really stand out and cut through the clutter online. “Be careful what you wish for,” I warned him. He assured me that he was ready to step out of his advertising comfort zone.

When the ad team started our brainstorming session, the subject of unusual advertising pitchmen came up. The Aflac duck and the Geico cave men were ones that quickly came to mind. The duck had the cute factor, but the Cave Men were bizarre, not attractive at all, but yet we were somehow still drawn to them. One team member started wearing her glasses oddly and someone commented, “You look like a Cyclops.”

Then it hit me. A Cyclops would be the perfect advertising pitchman for an eye doctor. If you only had one eye, you would be very careful in choosing your eye doctor right?  You would go with the best. And talk about cutting through the ad clutter, there is no question that this banner ad was going to deliver the clicks.

I wish I had a better end to the story. The doctor loved it, but his financial partner and wife refused to let us run it. The ad you see here was just a mock up. Yes it’s a little creepy and yes we would have gone with a more attractive model if we ran it. But you can’t say it didn’t catch your eye.