At a spring conference on ad design here in Toronto, advice from keynote experts was unanimous: Don't do what is normal they warned. í¢â‚¬ËœAvoid categorizationí¢â‚¬ ¦asymmetry is advantageous.í¢â‚¬â„¢ Advertising through anomalies has always proven to be a move that, through its unabashed and profound evocation, wins the faith of many followers. Heck, ití¢â‚¬â„¢s the same strategy that popularized reality television. Who wouldní¢â‚¬â„¢t prefer to see the boundaries pushed further and further beyond our usual expectations?

I doní¢â‚¬â„¢t know if you can make out from the picture of this light box billboard, but that there man is shedding tears. This is an ad placement in an urban centre in Mainland China. With a Samsung digital camera you can keep your maní¢â‚¬â„¢s softer side as proof. And ití¢â‚¬â„¢s not just Samsung who can capture the sensitive man and deliver him to the local Asian market. Sony and LG also sell products campaigning men who have no fear of being photographed in such a vulnerable state. A man secure enough to cry on camera is a riveting anomaly to a culture whose gender roles have historically been so strictly defined. To capture his vulnerable expression is a sense of power and freedom. Heí¢â‚¬â„¢s not crying because heí¢â‚¬â„¢s sick nowí¢â‚¬ ¦this is proof he is in love.

But to a white traveler the anomaly is the reclining blonde woman wearing diamond jewelry on a 40-foot long billboard on the side of the Samsung Building in Shanghai. When I stand below it looking around me to count how many white neighbors are in the crowd, I see two among a few hundred of us.

In 1972 the 8th wonder of the world was unearthed 40 kilometres outside of Xií¢â‚¬â„¢an City, the ancient capital of China. Over 6000 larger-than-life potted sculptures were found buried upright in battle formation, all with small but unique characteristics that differentiate one warrior persona from the next. As the city of Xií¢â‚¬â„¢an prepares to be swarmed by visitors during the 2008 Olympics, the site of the terracotta warriors, an easy 12-hour overnight train from Beijing, is sure to establish a greater reputation as an anomaly in the history of civilization.

If you buy a ticket to see the warriors the sponsorship is a dead giveaway as to what the local part of the country values, even more than mobile phones or digital cameras. Peculiar for me to see a sewing machine ad on the back of a global wonder, but following the 2008 Summer Games new and international sponsors may be welcome to apply.

Speaking of mobile phones, Virgin Mobile produced an ad campaign in Australia using photos from Flickr under the Creative Commons Attribution Only license. It didní¢â‚¬â„¢t take too long for the creator to discover this and the conversations and blogs that ensued are surprisingly positive.

Down in the bottom corner of the advertisement it indicates that the photo is from flickr.com/photos/chewywong.

There is a post in the FlickrCentral group about this photo and it has notes. Move your mouse over the photo to see them.

Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s almost as though the contributors view the remixing of these photos as a kind of response, to directly interact with their market. Advertising, designed to be the most persuasive media on the planet, may be one of the only contexts in which anomalies are not just easily accepted. Anomalies in advertising are culturally valued. They want us to think about how life can be spontaneous, different, fresh and unexpected. So we honorably oblige.